tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/fairy-tales-11989/articles
Fairy tales – The Conversation
2023-12-11T04:08:18Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219228
2023-12-11T04:08:18Z
2023-12-11T04:08:18Z
Fairy Tales at QAGOMA: how we revived these stories with new myths, new media and new quirks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564725/original/file-20231211-26-1452zd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2038%2C1364&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Henrique Oliveira, Brazil b.1973. Corupira 2023, commissioned for ‘Fairy Tales’, installation (detail), Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane 2023. Plywood, tapumes veneer and tree branches. Courtesy: Henrique Oliveira. © Henrique Oliveira. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Fairy Tales, the latest exhibition at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), gives off the pleasurable hum of remix culture, artists riffing on a core theme in numerous ways. </p>
<p>Overseen by the gallery’s cinematheque curator Amanda Slack-Smith, Fairy Tales focuses on how artists, designers and filmmakers have taken inspiration from fantasy motifs, adapting the fairy tale vocabulary of extremes (light and dark, good and evil, rich and poor) to their own artistic needs.</p>
<p>Based in handed-down oral traditions, fairy tales share characteristics with all manner of fables, folk stories and mythological narratives throughout the world. </p>
<p>These stories, which were initially rarely intended for children (yet featured them as central characters in easy-to-understand plots), made their way into print from the 17th century. </p>
<p>After the coining of the word <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/he-coined-the-word-folk-lore/">“folklore” in 1846</a>, colonisation, advertising and the international spread of mass culture drove folklorists and creatives to praise the authenticity of localised oral traditions. </p>
<p>This seductively designed show at QAGOMA makes clear that, rather than fairy tales being simply preserved, the modern age revived them with new myths, new media and new individualistic quirks, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney and beyond.</p>
<h2>Creatures in the night</h2>
<p>Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira sets the mood of the exhibition brilliantly with his gnarled and twisted woodland, Corupira (2023). </p>
<p>The sculpture builds slowly as you enter the corridors of the space and culminates in a meeting of massive tree branches that have burst through the gallery walls. Oliveira’s title refers to a Brazilian folk story about <a href="http://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/2012/04/o-curupira-lenda-amazonica.html">red-haired satyr-like creatures</a> who, living in the Amazon forest, deceive hunters and loggers from the shadows, killing them – or at least putting any potential coloniser off course. </p>
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<span class="caption">Henrique Oliveira, Brazil b.1973. Corupira 2023, commissioned for ‘Fairy Tales’, installation (detail), Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane 2023. Plywood, tapumes veneer and tree branches. Courtesy: Henrique Oliveira. © Henrique Oliveira. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.</span>
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<p>It is a great opener to the show because it metaphorically turns viewers into fairy tale wanderers, and artists into tricksters and spell-makers.</p>
<p>Oliveira’s work chimes perfectly with The Nightwatch (2004) by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, consisting of surveillance video footage of a fox the artist released into London’s National Portrait Gallery (with the gallery’s permission) during the night. Alÿs’s fox continues the fairy tale tradition of depicting forest animals as actively engaging with human societies.</p>
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<p>Alÿs self-consciously titled his work after a 17th century painting by <a href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-C-5">Rembrandt van Rijn</a> in which citizens are depicted serving as defenders and official volunteers for their city. Alÿs might be suggesting the contemporary artist is like a public servant whose job, like the fox in the video, is to intrude on the prized traditions supported by museums. </p>
<p>Australian artist Abdul Abdullah’s provocative photograph Troubling the Margins (from the Interloper series) (2022) follows a similar idea. Abdullah literally shows himself as a fox in a henhouse. </p>
<p>The artist-as-fox smiles maliciously at the viewer as if saying to the art world: “I can’t believe you let me in here.”</p>
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<span class="caption">Abdul Abdullah, Australia b.1986. Troubling the margins (from ‘Interloper’ series) 2022. Digital print, 162.5 x 130cm; made with the assistance of David Charles Collins. Courtesy: The artist and Yavuz Gallery, Sydney. © Abdul Abdullah.</span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-amazing-ngv-triennial-2023-makes-us-question-our-world-and-forces-us-to-see-it-differently-207295">The amazing NGV Triennial 2023 makes us question our world and forces us to see it differently</a>
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<h2>Uncanny images</h2>
<p>One of many terrific sculptural works in the exhibition, Jana Sterbak’s Inside (1990) is an empty glass coffin seemingly pregnant with a smaller mirrored coffin inside. </p>
<p>A reversed imagining of life in death, the piece responds to the many glass coffins in fairy and folk tales (such as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Grimm’s Brothers The Glass Coffin), exploring the uncanny idea of death being put on permanent display for the living.</p>
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<span class="caption">Patricia Piccinini, Australia b.1965. Enchanted Field (installation view, detail) 2023. Fairy Tales, GOMA, Brisbane. Collection: The artist © Patricia Piccinini. Image: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.</span>
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<p>It’s not a coffin but a caravan in Patricia Piccinini’s The Couple (2018), where two realistically rendered hybrid human-animal lovers are frozen in a serene moment cuddling on a fold-out bed, their clawed feet sticking out from under the sheets. </p>
<p>Piccinini’s works often centre on hyperreal figures that look genetically altered. These sculptures are at their most interesting when they make viewers aware of themselves. I felt stupid for it, but I couldn’t help feeling guilty for gawking too long at the sweet-looking couple’s physical deformations.</p>
<p>Projected behind a huge semi-transparent curtain, an exquisitely staged installation of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film Beauty and the Beast is situated in relation to costumes and props from its production. This and other displays of material from fairy-tale-inspired films Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and The Labyrinth (1986) are among the most engaging cinema-themed pieces in the exhibition.</p>
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<h2>The capacity of anything to intrigue</h2>
<p>In my 2015 <a href="https://www.routledge.com/How-Folklore-Shaped-Modern-Art-A-Post-Critical-History-of-Aesthetics/Hill/p/book/9780815386551#:%7E:text=culture%20more%20generally.-,How%20Folklore%20Shaped%20Modern%20Art%3A%20A%20Post%2DCritical%20History%20of,here%20as%20less%20a%20direct">publication</a> about the relationship between folk art and fine art, I argued art critics and art historians in the 19th and 20th centuries narrowly discussed oral traditions and amateur cultural creations in anthropological terms. </p>
<p>By their reasoning, these were artefacts that failed to live up to the special insights and feelings expected of fine art. </p>
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<span class="caption">Gustave Doré, France 1832–83. Little Red Riding Hood c.1862. Oil on canvas, 65.3 x 81.7cm. Gift of Mrs S Horne, 1962. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.</span>
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<p>This school of thought is no longer the case. Fairy Tales is a good example of the recent expansion of art-history-based curating into larger visual culture frameworks. Clothing, relics, paintings, literary documents, installations, videos and filmic props now all cohabit the museum in non-hierarchical ways, staging not the inherent value of specific material so much as the capacity of anything to intrigue.</p>
<p>For a show about timeless human fears and fantasies, Fairy Tales may be curiously timely.</p>
<p><em>Fairy Tales is at QAGOMA, Brisbane, until April 28, 2024.</em></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-poetically-charged-art-of-tacita-dean-gives-its-audience-a-moment-for-stillness-and-time-219485">How the poetically-charged art of Tacita Dean gives its audience a moment for stillness and time</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wes Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fairy Tales focuses on how artists, designers and filmmakers have taken inspiration from fantasy motifs, adapting the fairy tale vocabulary of extremes to their own artistic needs.
Wes Hill, Associate Professor, art history and visual culture, Southern Cross University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186196
2023-01-23T02:07:43Z
2023-01-23T02:07:43Z
My favourite fictional character: I’ll never forget these half-wild, ‘too much’ heroines – Philip Pullman’s Lyra and Elena Ferrante’s Lila
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499935/original/file-20221209-25133-3bblu5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C15%2C2041%2C1345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lila, played by Ludovica Nasti (right) in the HBO production of Elena Ferrante's My Beautiful Friend.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eduardo Castaldo/HBO</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reading Philip Pullman’s <a href="https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/His-Dark-Materials-Northern-Lights-Philip-Pullman-9781407130224">Northern Lights</a> to my children around 2007, I met its heroine, Lyra Belacqua. My children barely remember her. I will never forget her – nor Pantalaimon, her daemon; her soul in protean animal form. </p>
<p>Lyra was the first fictional girl to feel familiar to me. Before her, there’d only been men: Achilles, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Sorel">Julien Sorel</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Myshkin">Prince Lev Myshkin</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bezukhov">Pierre Bezukhov</a>.</p>
<p>Lyra is a “barbarian”, a “half-wild cat”. She’s a fierce and fearless teller of tall tales who clambers over rooftops and plays gangs in the streets of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/goth-steampunk-and-the-state-of-subculture-today-68192">steampunk</a> Oxford. I love her disdain for clothes and cleanliness. I love her autonomy, her temper, her insatiable curiosity. And the fact that her best friend is a boy – and later, a drunk and ravaged polar bear. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-grown-ups-still-need-fairy-tales-87078">Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales</a>
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<h2>A gift for reading truth</h2>
<p>But I especially love her gift for reading the alethiometer (from the Greek “aletheia”, truth). This truth-teller, or symbol-reader, is like a compass of brass and crystal. </p>
<p>There are pictures round its rim: multilayered symbols that can mean many different things. (An anchor could be hope, steadfastness, a snag or the sea.) You ask a question by moving its three hands to particular symbols – and its long, swinging needle answers; mysteriously guided and simultaneously interpreted by the reader’s mind.</p>
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<span class="caption">Lyra with alethiometer, in the TV adaptation of Pullman’s His Dark Materials series (which includes Northern Lights).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">His Dark Materials: Betrayal/IMDB</span></span>
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<p>This is an esoteric art that takes years of book learning to master. But Lyra teaches herself in weeks. She’s a natural. She instinctively understands how to free and yet focus her mind to roam among the symbols. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>She found if she held the alethiomter just so in her palms and gazed at it in a particular lazy way, as she thought of it, the long needle would begin to move more purposefully … and although she understood nothing of it, she gained a deep calm enjoyment from it, unlike anything she’d known.</p>
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<p>Everyone in this world is after Lyra, for her unique skill with the alethiometer – and her rumoured destiny. She’s a special child, with a hidden, scandalous parentage and a future of cosmic import.</p>
<p>My own fascination with symbols led me to a course on feminist, moon-centred astrology in 1992. Reading the symbols on an astrological wheel similarly requires a capacity to both be free and focus your mind, which came easily to me. I’d never read a better description of this than Pullman’s in Northern Lights.</p>
<p>But was it problematic that as a grown-up woman responsible for two young children, the fictional character I most related to was a half-wild, symbol-reading child?</p>
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<span class="caption">Lyra’s best friend is a drunk and ravaged polar bear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">His Dark Materials: Betrayal/IMDB</span></span>
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<h2>Talking about Lila</h2>
<p>It was with a weird sense of relief that ten years later I met Lila Cerullo, the title character in Elena Ferrante’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35036409-my-brilliant-friend">My Brilliant Friend</a>. Here was another ferocious, filthy, quicksilver girl, “too much for anyone” – but who, over the course of four novels set in “real” postwar Naples, actually grows up, finds work, becomes a woman, has lovers, children, a career.</p>
<p>Lila seemed a version of Lyra, but she was much more complex – and much more shareable among friends. I love almost nothing more than talking books. It wasn’t just that Lila grows up; it was that Lila and her friend Lena, who narrates My Brilliant Friend, had become global phenomena. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499937/original/file-20221209-16679-hulkq8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lila (right, played by Gaia Girace) and her friend Lena, who narrates My Beautiful Friend, became global phenomena.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although Northern Lights and its two sequels (His Dark Materials trilogy) had also been bestselling and critically acclaimed, I didn’t know many adults who’d read them. On the other hand, Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels became a worldwide bestselling sensation. </p>
<p>By 2017, everyone wanted to talk about them.</p>
<p>That year I’d split up with my children’s father and left behind my work in the predominately male world of accounting and sustainability. When a friend pressed Karl Ove Knausgaard’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/a-death-in-the-family-9780099555162">My Struggle</a> onto me, I read 100 pages and threw it down in disgust. I vowed to fill my head with women’s voices. The first book I picked up was My Brilliant Friend.</p>
<p>I fell for Lila immediately. She has the same storytelling impulse as Lyra, the same capacity to transform life into <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-early-australian-fairy-tales-displaced-aboriginal-people-with-mythical-creatures-and-fantasies-of-empty-land-185592">fairy tale</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-scary-tales-for-scary-times-181597">horror story</a>. And a similar wayward self-reliance, quick temper, fearlessness and wilful disregard of others – and the same impassioned urge for justice, such as when schoolgirl Lila holds a knife to the throat of a young man twice her size who’s grabbed Lena’s wrist and broken her bracelet.</p>
<p>She said calmly, in dialect, “Touch her again and I’ll show you what happens.”</p>
<p>And when they bother, both Lyra and Lila are brilliant, capable of exceptional mental, emotional and physical feats. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-writing-is-a-convulsive-act-inside-the-mind-of-elena-ferrante-180311">True writing is a convulsive act: inside the mind of Elena Ferrante</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Dissolving margins and a loosened mind</h2>
<p>Lila’s destiny hangs heavy over the Neapolitan quartet. It’s foretold by her adult son on the opening page. Lena extrapolates: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s been at least three decades since she told me that she wanted to disappear without leaving a trace … she wanted every one of her cells to disappear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This desire to disappear relates to a formative moment in Lila’s adolescence: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On December 31st of 1958 Lila had her first episode of dissolving margins. The term isn’t mine, she always used it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lila’s perception unmoors, bounded matter breaks down and she glimpses something terrifying at the heart of ordinary life. Her pulse races, she’s filled with revulsion. Lila’s dissolving matter, like Lyra’s loosened mind, felt uncannily familiar to me.</p>
<p>In my own times of dissolution, I return to Lyra. Reading Northern Lights recalibrates my soul. On the other hand, Lila – and Lena – set in motion an entirely new chapter of my life: reading women’s voices and learning to write my own.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186196/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Gleeson-White does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Half-wild Lyra from Northern Lights was the first female character who felt real to Jane Gleeson-White. Then she met Elena Ferrante’s ‘ferocious, filthy, quicksilver’ Lila, a more complex version.
Jane Gleeson-White, Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196135
2022-12-13T23:37:41Z
2022-12-13T23:37:41Z
What is a goblin?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500550/original/file-20221212-1235-576dx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C1187%2C1304&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">By John Dickson Batten/Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2022 word of the year from the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary is “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-06/what-is-goblin-mode-oxford-dictionary-word-of-the-year-2022/101738866">goblin mode</a>”. Voted by the public and coming in at 93%, “goblin mode” – a phrase, rather than a word, to be precise – expresses a state of being or mindset. </p>
<p>The official <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/goblin-mode-selected-as-oxfords-2022-word-of-the-year-180981245/">definition</a> is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Goblin mode” expresses a response to the anxieties of the pandemic and the challenges of the return to so-called “normality”. It is also about challenging the essentially unattainable ideals expressed on social media. Think: grocery shopping in your pyjamas; talking on your phone while on the toilet; bingeing an entire television series while eating takeaway. </p>
<p>But what about the goblin whose name has been taken in vain? What have goblins ever done to deserve being linked to such anti-social, self-indulgent human behaviour?</p>
<p>And what is a goblin, anyway?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1599695123209719812"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-grown-ups-still-need-fairy-tales-87078">Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hostile creatures known to travel in little gangs</h2>
<p>According to the famous English folklorist, <a href="https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL684537A/Katharine_Mary_Briggs">Katharine Mary Briggs</a> (1898-1980), goblins are evil and ill-intentioned spirits. Small and ugly in appearance, they are embedded in the rich folklore of the United Kingdom, in particular.</p>
<p>Like all members of the very broad category of “fey”, or the beings of the preternatural world, including fairies, elves, and pixies, goblins are renowned for being tricksy. In other words, they are best avoided. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500622/original/file-20221213-6597-agowbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Goblin market, 1911, England, by Frank Craig. Purchased 1912 by Public Subscription.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Te Papa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Different regions in Britain have different goblin types. In Cornwall, for example, the Spriggan tends to inhabit <a href="https://www.ancientpenwith.org/cairns.html">cairns and barrows</a>. </p>
<p>Hostile creatures known to travel in little gangs, Spriggans love guarding special objects as befitting a locale rich in stories of pirates, smugglers and buried treasure. </p>
<p>Also in Cornwall are the <a href="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/-1970-01-01-65">Knockers</a> or Buccas. This type of goblin works in the tin mines and lives in nearby caverns, springs, or wells. Cornish folklore presents differing accounts of the Knockers, including stories ranging from their indifference towards their human counterparts to their instigation of mining accidents, rockslides and cave-ins.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500551/original/file-20221212-24-uptvhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What about hobgoblins, then?</h2>
<p>Under the category of “hobgoblin” we have nicer goblins that are helpful rather than harmful to humans. Known to be more domesticated than other goblins, hobgoblins tend to find a house, move in, and stay put.</p>
<p>Their presence is often made known in mysterious, unsettling sounds and physical pranks, similar to the actions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-poltergeists-just-in-time-for-halloween-85690">poltergeists</a>. Like all fey folk, hobgoblins are most troublesome when they are irritated or provoked. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous hobgoblin is Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is introduced by a fairy who addresses him in Act 2, Scene 1:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Either I mistake your shape and making quite,<br>
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite<br>
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are you not he<br>
That frights the maidens of the villagery;<br>
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, <br>
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;<br>
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;<br>
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm?<br>
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,<br>
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:<br>
Are you not he?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here Shakespeare captures the folkloric essence of the British hobgoblin. Puck is described as a prankster and trickster, as a spirit fond of frightening innocent maidens, turning milk sour, and misleading humans walking at night. Yet he is also depicted as helping humans at work and sometimes bringing them good luck.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500552/original/file-20221212-18-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Puck (1789) by Joshua Reynolds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-poltergeists-just-in-time-for-halloween-85690">Eight things you need to know about poltergeists – just in time for Halloween</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A complex figure</h2>
<p>These varied representations of the British folkloric goblin speak to their embodiment of pure ambivalence. Some are inherently hostile and malevolent, others are unpredictable – both harmful and helpful, and some have good intentions unless antagonised. </p>
<p>In this sense, the goblin is a complex figure, both frightening and yet also intriguing. As such, they may be considered to symbolise the human “<a href="https://www.thesap.org.uk/articles-on-jungian-psychology-2/about-analysis-and-therapy/the-shadow/">shadow</a> self”.</p>
<p>According to Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Jung">Carl Jung</a> (1875-1961), the shadow is that part of every human psyche that we strive to keep hidden and repressed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sleeps; monsters proliferate behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500624/original/file-20221213-1960-ib856g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes, Spain, The sleep of reason produces monsters 1797-1798.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Gallery of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It may be interpreted as our anti-social self, our lazy, unfriendly, indulgent, hostile, and hurtful self. In this particular manifestation of our shadow self, we may embrace the goblin in its worst form, including its grotesque appearance (remember the dark pandemic days when hair remained unwashed, uncombed, and generally unkempt; and clothes were recycled over days if not weeks?).</p>
<p>But Jung also saw hope in the shadow. It represents our wildness and our enjoyment of intense, wilful self-expression, and our creativity. It is the part of us that stands up to injustice and offence. It can lead us to joyful mischief and laughter. It reminds us that non-conformity is sometimes liberating.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/harking-back-the-ancient-pagan-festivities-in-our-christmas-rituals-34309">Harking back: the ancient pagan festivities in our Christmas rituals</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Like all members of the category of ‘fey’, or the beings of the preternatural world, including fairies, elves, and pixies, goblins are renowned for being tricksy. In other words, best avoided.
Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193628
2022-12-12T02:04:46Z
2022-12-12T02:04:46Z
‘We are only passing through’: stories about memory, mortality and the effort of being alive
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496684/original/file-20221122-11-lwjunf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C17%2C5857%2C3887&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roger Ce/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chris Flynn’s <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/here-be-leviathans">Here Be Leviathans</a> is a collection of short stories that seems quirky and light-hearted, propelled by its creative use of perspective. Each story is established from a surprising vantage point and so the world as Flynn imagines it becomes topsy-turvy – anything at all might be alive and sentient. Animals, chairs, boats, you name it. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Here Be Leviathans – Chris Flynn (UQP) and The Tower – Carol Lefevre (Spinifex)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>A bear eats a teenager, and thus inherits the boy’s memories. An airplane seat describes its last day at work. A hotel room observes its favourite couple, who return over the years. A monkey details a trip into outer space. But these stories are driven by more than quirky inspiration. </p>
<p>The point-of-view might offer an interesting hook, and Flynn’s tone may be jaunty at times, but the stories are propelled by deeper themes of mortality, death and existential pointlessness. Flynn uses perspective to reflect and question the way we think about things. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-and-girls-at-risk-at-the-end-of-the-world-these-subversive-short-stories-reflect-our-anxieties-186823">Women and girls at risk, at the end of the world: these subversive short stories reflect our anxieties</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Memory and mortality</h2>
<p>Many of the characters in this collection die, have died or are about to die – but there’s also a counter-theme of connection. The bear may eat the teenager, and so the ranger is hunting him down; we enter a hide-and-seek game for survival. But it’s the connection the bear and ranger have, the mutual respect they share, that becomes the message of the first story, Inheritance. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Flynn also explores ideas of memory transference, and this imbues the story with lingering, thoughtful hope: something that pervades the whole collection. In Flynn’s world, death can be a means to existence – as long as our memories keep living, our experiences and perspectives continue to exist. </p>
<p>Flynn’s use of unexpected points of view allows him to avoid the sentimental. In 22F, he tells the story of an airplane seat abandoned in the jungle and we’re left with the superb image of moss growing up and over the upholstery, claiming the seat for the natural domain. We learn about the seat’s history, the work-politics of neighbouring seats, and observations of the passengers who have sat in them. We see glimpses of these human cargoes that simultaneously show the banality and profundity of life.</p>
<p>The collection took Flynn ten years to write, and he includes notes at the end about his process and the stories’ origins. For instance, he describes how 22F was inspired by the Werner Herzog documentary <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/wings-of-hope/">Wings of Hope</a>, which interviewed Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of a 1971 airplane crash. Together, Herzog and Koepcke journey to the site of the crash and find parts of the airplane in the jungle. Flynn says the story is about:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Memory and place. A reminder that we are only passing through and that everything is part of something larger.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of Chris Flynn’s stories is told from the perspective of an airplane seat abandoned in the jungle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leslie Cross/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The importance of memory and place is further explored in the story A Beautiful and Unexpected Turn, where we follow the perspective of a hotel room that takes a special interest in its guests, Diane and Hector. We see the waxing and waning and waxing of their relationship. At the end, the room says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are places of passage, of transience […] Eventually, I would be demolished, perhaps to make way for another hotel or an apartment block, or nothing […] I would become rubble, and then dust. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This could be the larger message of the book – our lives are transient and then we become dust. The connections we experience and inspire are what give us meaning in the moment. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-will-i-be-able-to-upload-my-brain-to-a-computer-184130">When will I be able to upload my brain to a computer?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Complications of care</h2>
<p>Carol Lefevre’s <a href="https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/p/9781925950625">The Tower</a> also emphasises place. This thoughtful collection of short stories is very different from Flynn’s in tone and focus, but it too grounds storytelling in the themes of place and mortality. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Tower is structured around a series of interlocking narratives about Dorelia MacCraith – in the very first story, after losing her husband Geordie, she sells her house and buys a new one, with a tower. Her children, who she does not consult, are suspicious of this defiant act. </p>
<p>Straight away, the reader is thrust into the negotiations and complications of care. People who Dorelia once cared for are now asserting (or trying to assert) forms of reverse care. And many stories in the collection reverberate with related themes – women caring for children and partners and parents, or making decisions about their positions as carers, especially in the context of trying (or deciding not) to have children.</p>
<p>The interconnected stories about Dorelia and her tower are the centrepiece of the collection. Yet Dorelia finds this house of her own by accident, when driving her dear friend and fellow artist Elizabeth Bunting to an appointment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>they took a wrong turn, and then another, until at the end of the a quiet cul-de-sac, set among sheltering trees, stood the most adorable house […] and above the porch rose a small tower.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I appreciate that it is the women’s friendship – their spark of connection and humour are immediate and inviting – that enables Dorelia to find her tower oasis. I also appreciate that this critical act occurs during a moment of generosity and care: Dorelia is driving Elizabeth to an appointment. </p>
<p>While Dorelia may find her tower by accident, we never feel Lefevre is accidental in rendering the lives of these women on the page. The prose is carefully controlled, as is the detail and world-building – and the deeper reflections of the stories kaleidoscope through one another, building in nuanced ways. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-grey-haired-and-radiant-reimagining-ageing-for-women-182336">Friday essay: grey-haired and radiant – reimagining ageing for women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reimagining the crone</h2>
<p>Of course, symbolic permutations resonate throughout this text – a tower of one’s own harks to <a href="https://theconversation.com/skin-and-sinew-and-breath-and-longing-reimagining-the-lives-of-queer-artists-and-activists-from-sappho-to-virginia-woolf-184459">Virginia Woolf</a> and Rapunzel. Dorelia reimagines the crone from the Rapunzel <a href="https://theconversation.com/reader-beware-the-nasty-new-edition-of-the-brothers-grimm-34537">fairy tale</a> as central and heroic. </p>
<p>This rewriting and revision of the crone – and her motives and backstory – seems key to recognising women’s narratives more generally, and prioritising a multiplicity of stories and experiences within the Australian literary canon. In this sense, it feels like Lefevre is in conversation with authors such as Drusilla Modjeska, <a href="https://theconversation.com/intellectual-fearlessness-politics-and-the-spiritual-impulse-the-remarkable-career-of-amanda-lohrey-187354">Amanda Lohrey</a> and Charlotte Wood. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The main, recurring narrator of The Tower reimagines the crone from the Rapunzel fairytale as central and heroic.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/tarot-resurgence-is-less-about-occult-than-fun-and-self-help-just-like-throughout-history-139448">tarot</a> mythology, the card of The Tower considers the collapse of old structures. We get a sense of this in the reflexivity of the text, as well as in its story-world – as Dorelia faces life without her husband Geordie. Indeed, old age itself collapses life as she’s known it. The interplay between the textual and the intertextual resonates in this collection, making this book as enjoyable to later ponder as it was to actually read. </p>
<p>Here Be Leviathans and The Tower are two very different short-story collections to consider in tandem. They vary in voice, tone and style. Yet both engage with the precariousness and effort that is at the foundation of being alive, and making meaning from our short time on the planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shady Cosgrove does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A bear eats a teenager, and inherits his memories. An ageing woman writer buys a tower of her own – where she reimagines the crone from Rapunzel. Two inventive new books resonate with our reviewer.
Shady Cosgrove, Associate Professor, Creative Writing, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185592
2022-07-05T19:59:16Z
2022-07-05T19:59:16Z
How early Australian fairy tales displaced Aboriginal people with mythical creatures and fantasies of empty land
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472198/original/file-20220704-22-u6huo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C151%2C4471%2C3414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A prince flies in a carriage propelled by kingfishers in Hume Cook's Australian Fairytales.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Content warning: this article contains reference to racist depictions of First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>Most of us grew up reading fairy tales adapted from the European tradition: stories of kings, queens and princesses set in palaces and forests, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast. But what about the history of Australian fairy tales? </p>
<p>Australia’s vast distances, deserts, harsh temperatures, deadly wildlife, and the ongoing cultures of Aboriginal Australians made the country a complicated fit for fairy tales. Indeed, few tales by Australian authors were published until the late 19th century. </p>
<p>These early Australian fairy tales mythologised aspects of the country’s history and environment to sanitise the process of white settlement. In doing so, they helped to invent traditions and cultural explanations through which children were encouraged to understand their place in the nation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-sleeping-beauty-to-the-frog-prince-why-we-shouldnt-ban-fairytales-88317">From sleeping beauty to the frog prince – why we shouldn't ban fairytales</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘This real fairy-land’</h2>
<p>In 1880, one newspaper <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64974000">called for Australian writers to create local fairy tales</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And why not fairies in Australia! Why should not our innumerable ferny glades romantic valleys, mountainous passes, and lonesome glens, be peopled with fays and elves? Why should not <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/puck-fairy">Robin Goodfellow</a> [the fairy Puck] be found sitting jauntily astride the gorgeous waratah, or chasing the laughing jackass from its favourite bough? But have we no writers who can people with <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/fay">fays</a> and gnomes this real fairy-land of ours? An Australian fairy-book would be something new, at any rate. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A significant number of Australian fairy tales did eventually import fairies, elves, and witches into the bush. These characters were often depicted alongside native Australian animals and plants, most strikingly in illustrations such as those of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-02/australian-fairytale-legend-ida-rentoul-outhwaite/10285990">Ida Rentoul Outhwaite</a>, who published a series of iconic fairy-themed books in the 1920s and 1930s. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-01/cocktails-in-the-bush/10299562?nw=0">Cocktails in the Bush</a> (c. 1927), for example, a moth-winged fairy decants drinks on a toadstool table for three anthropomorphised koalas, while native and introduced species spectate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the book Elves & Fairies by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. 1st edition, Lothian, 1916.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This type of illustration found its equivalent in fairy tales that placed fairies, giants, and elves in distinctly Australian locations including deserts and bushland populated by native animals, such as the emu. </p>
<p>Imported mythical creatures including mermaids and giants were used to fill an “absence” in white settler storytelling through the creation of origin stories for Australian geographic and astronomical features.</p>
<p>In J.M. Whitfeld’s The Spirit of the Bush Fire and Other Australian Fairy Tales (1898), two stories, “The Wizard of Magnetic Island” and “The Making of the Southern Cross”, provide magical origins for natural features or place names.</p>
<p>While Magnetic Island, located off the coast of Queensland, was purportedly named “Magnetical Island” by Captain James Cook when observing interference to his ship’s instruments, Whitfeld’s story proposes that the island was named for a wizard who resided there thousands of years prior who “had a most tremendously powerful magnet in his thumb”. </p>
<h2>Making Aboriginal Australians mythical</h2>
<p>While Whitfeld’s collection concentrates on the natural world, with other stories about koalas and bushfires, many early Australian fairy tales depicted Aboriginal people. These tales commonly place fairies as the country’s first inhabitants, or merge Aboriginal people with mythical creatures. </p>
<p>In Atha Westbury’s “Mothland” from <a href="https://archive.org/details/australianfairyt00westiala">Australian Fairy Tales</a> (1897), “the Moths” capture a small girl living in a Victorian farmhouse named Lily, who has lied to her parents about breaking a clock. The Moths seek to punish “bad” children, and substitute one of their own kind for Lily, whom they carry away to Mothland. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A.J. Johnson, ‘Speeding away across the country as swift as the wind.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Atha Westbury. Australian Fairy Tales. London: Ward, Lock and Co, 1897.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Country_of_Lost_Children/JCym_PWkEIIC?hl=en&gbpv=0">study of lost child narratives</a>, Peter Pierce describes the Moths as “alternate indigenes”. The Moths are a “small native race of people”, who have lived in the valley by the Murray River since long before Lily’s grandparents settled nearby.</p>
<p>Their tribal structure and long history in the area prior to white settlement evokes comparisons with Aboriginal people. The small size of the Moths and the practice of swapping one of their own children for a human child, however, also associates them with fairies. </p>
<p>Other children’s fiction of the period, such as Ethel Pedley’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/dot_kangaroo_librivox">Dot and the Kangaroo</a>(1899), depicts Aboriginal Australians as threatening, but the “fairy-fication” of the Moths enables them to teach a moral lesson. </p>
<p>When Lily confesses to her father that she broke the clock, the Moth child Scarlet Mantle, who had been made to resemble Lily, is returned to her people. Scarlet Mantle largely “managed to conduct herself as a civilised human child should”, but “could not entirely forget” her Moth behaviours.</p>
<p>Though this might be read as a reference to the divide between human and supernatural beings, the word “civilised” reinforces the racial resonances of the Moths. The hybrid nature of the Moths also provides a way to invent a European fairy-tale past in Australia, with the Moths’ long history on the land replacing Aboriginal traditions and culture.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minnie I. Rowe, Gully Folk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne: Melbourne Publishing, Company, 1919.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Minnie Rowe’s Gully Folk (1919) makes more explicit statements about fairies as Australia’s original inhabitants. These fairies are also credited with teaching Aboriginal people how to build shelter and to generate fire. Children’s literature academic <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clare-Bradford/publication/290332557_The_Return_of_the_Fairy_Australian_Medievalist_Fantasy_for_the_Young/links/5efd41d692851c52d6108f78/The-Return-of-the-Fairy-Australian-Medievalist-Fantasy-for-the-Young.pdf">Clare Bradford </a> suggests the fairies in Rowe’s tale are charged with solving the “problem” of situating non-Indigenous child readers within Australia, while “managing” the brutal reality of the colonial past. </p>
<p>In Rowe’s story, Aboriginal people have disappeared. This leads the fairies to sing sorrowfully about how much they miss the Aboriginal children with whom they once played:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where are all the picaninnies?<br>
Have you stolen them away?<br>
Say they are not gone forever, <br>
Say they’ll come again some day<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The song signals the traumatic effects of white settlement. Yet the way the fairies blame themselves for allowing their friends to remain “helpless, like little children”, reproduces racist ideas of the period that viewed Indigenous people as not having reached the fully developed state of the white adult. </p>
<p>Hume Cook’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/b1862946">Australian Fairy Tales</a> (1925) describes a place in the central Australian desert in which magical beings have constructed an elaborate city isolated from humans. When Prince Waratah prepares to marry his Princess, she is held by the “Desert Fairies”, muscular humans clad in loincloths who lurk in the shrubbery. </p>
<p>She is soon rescued by the prince, who raises a team of blue kingfishers to propel his flying carriage to the site of the kidnapping. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christian Yandell,</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hume Cook. Australian Fairy Tales. Melbourne: J. Howlett Ross, 1925.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The imagined threat of Aboriginal people, particularly to white women, is partially concealed by the illustration of the Desert Fairies as white. Yet the way in which the desert fairies are depicted with near-naked bodies, emerging from bushes, connects them with the threat of “primitive” humanity beyond the safety of the city.</p>
<p>Cook’s story is one of many Australian examples that blur the distinction between fairy tale characters and Aboriginal people in order to displace them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-poet-evelyn-araluen-wins-the-2022-stella-prize-with-a-wild-ride-skewering-colonial-mythologies-182120">First Nations poet Evelyn Araluen wins the 2022 Stella Prize with a 'wild ride' skewering colonial mythologies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A terrifying tale to remember</h2>
<p>The stories discussed above were original literary compositions, but fairy tale tradition is built upon the circulation of familiar tale types across time and place. </p>
<p>The most impactful — and terrifying — fairy tale retelling for Australian child readers was “The Hobyahs”, first published in <a href="https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/education/readers">the School Paper</a> in 1926 and included in the <a href="https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/our-stories/ask-a-librarian/history-of-victorian-school-readers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=16-06-22_slvnews_winter-22&utm_content=16-06-22_slvnews_winter-22+Version+B+CID_7694e9d59753bc6f270881b5fdcf1821&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20more">Victorian School Readers</a> from 1930. </p>
<p>The story is assumed to be a Scottish folk tale, but clearly speaks to fears about the danger of the bush in its Australian incarnations. A loyal dog named Dingo staves off the nightly threat of the Hobyahs, who wish to “eat up the little old man, carry off the little old woman” who live in a bark hut. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hobyahs. Victorian School Reader, 2nd edition. Melbourne, 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The old man cruelly punishes Dingo for barking, progressively severing his tail and limbs, and eventually the dog’s head, which allows the Hobyahs to finally abduct the old woman. Once brave Dingo has his body parts returned to him, he rescues the woman and devours the Hobyahs, eliminating them from the country. </p>
<p>Many readers who encountered the Hobyahs as children continue to recall how haunted they were by the tale. The other Australian stories discussed here, however, are now forgotten. By the late 1930s, the interest in the fairy tale genre had largely dissipated, as Australian children’s authors developed their own original bush fantasies, such as May Gibbs’ Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books (which began in 1918) and Dorothy Wall’s Blinky Bill (1933).</p>
<p>These stories have also had little influence on fairy tale fiction written by contemporary Australian authors such as Kate Forsyth, Sophie Masson, Margo Lanagan, and Danielle Wood. Contemporary Aboriginal Australian writers such as Alexis Wright in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18247932-the-swan-book">The Swan Book</a> (2013), merge fairy tales and other types of mythology with political satire.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unhappily-ever-after-modern-fairy-tales-of-motherhood-by-danielle-wood-30725">Unhappily ever after: modern fairy tales of motherhood by Danielle Wood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Early fairy tales imagined an Australia that accorded with adult perceptions of white settlement, creating fantasies of a land uninhabited by Aboriginal people, but already influenced by European folk tradition.</p>
<p>Though they include whimsical imagery that situates fairies in the bush, these stories often use the marvellous to place a palatable veneer over the realities of Australia’s past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From mythical Moth people, who kidnapped children, to threatening desert fairies in loincloths, early Australian fairy tales helped sanitise white settlement, expressing colonial fears.
Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179630
2022-03-23T18:58:34Z
2022-03-23T18:58:34Z
How fairy tales shape fighting spirit: Ukraine’s children hear bedtime stories of underdog heroes, while Russian children hear tales of magical success
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453675/original/file-20220322-23-pzkjgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5973%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Ukrainian soldier wanders down a railway past the bodies of dead Russian soldiers on the outskirts of Irpin, Ukraine, March 1, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ukrainian-soldier-wanders-down-the-railway-to-inspect-news-photo/1238854980?adppopup=true">Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the outset of Russia’s invasion, almost no one in the West expected that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/04/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-is-baffling-military-analysts.html">Ukraine would be able to offer Russia any kind of serious opposition</a> to its unprovoked aggression. </p>
<p>Much has been written about how leaders, including allies, underestimated the leadership ability of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But beyond miscalculating how a comedian could transform into a <a href="https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1011073/we-will-fight-to-the-end-zelensky-quotes-churchill-in-speech-to-uk">Winston Churchill-like figure</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-zelenskyy-nato-europe-fc52fa8b510fef79cb5505ebe8a841a8">military assessments of the Ukrainian army</a> were also <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-invasion-scenarios/31614428.html">way off</a>. </p>
<p>A year into the war, it’s clear many overestimated the Russian army’s will and <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/moscows-continuing-ukrainian-buildup">capability to fight</a> and the Ukrainian army’s <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/595799-us-intelligence-officials-concerned-kyiv-could-fall-to-russia-within">will to resist an opponent superior in number, equipment and positioning</a>. </p>
<p>What can explain the way the Ukraine war has played out, in contradiction to experts’ predictions?</p>
<p>We believe that one factor underlying the unexpected performance of each country’s military can be traced to the cultural differences between Russians and Ukrainians. Those differences were cultivated in part through the fairy tales of their childhoods.</p>
<p>One of us, Sophia Moskalenko, is an expert on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190689322.001.0001">psychology of fairy tales</a>. The other, Mia Bloom, studies <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801453885/small-arms/">children’s mobilization into violent extremism</a> – why and how children turn to violence. We know the power of folklore in shaping the worldview of children and, ultimately, of the adults they grow up to be.</p>
<h2>Underdog hero vs. magical thinking</h2>
<p>Folklore is important for understanding people’s cultural narratives – story lines that describe something unique to the culture’s history and its people. They help to define a cultural identity and, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12667">in subtle ways, shape future choices</a>. The master narratives that Ukrainian children grow up with – which serve as the dominant cultural script – are radically different from the ones Russian children absorb. </p>
<p>Traditional Ukrainian bedtime stories, such as “<a href="https://%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BA%D0%B0.%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80/kotigoroshko2.html">Kotygoroshko</a>,” “<a href="https://kazky.org.ua/zbirky/ukrajinsjki-narodni-kazky/kyrylo-kozhumjaka">Kyrylo Kozhumyaka</a>” and “<a href="https://%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BA%D0%B0.%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80/ivasik_telesik.html">Ivasyk Telesyk</a>,” all portray unassuming characters persevering against insurmountable odds. The character arc takes them through challenges, testing their will and transforming them from vulnerable to triumphant. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bronze statue of a girl slaying a large dragon with a club." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453685/original/file-20220322-13-19mop9w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sculpture in Kyiv of Ukrainian fairy tale character Kotygoroshko defeating the evil dragon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thisisbossi/3905251485/in/photolist-4DJewv-DqjJH-6X6rda">thisisbossie/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These fairy tales follow a well-known narrative arc of the underdog hero – a formula used for decades in bestselling books like “<a href="https://clarionherald.org/news/harry-potter-chronicles-battle-between-good-evil">Harry Potter</a>” and Hollywood blockbusters like “<a href="https://epicheroism.wordpress.com/home/david-vs-goliath/">Star Wars</a>.” </p>
<p>In Ukrainian children’s bedtime stories, the main characters often start out as unlikely heroes, but their courage, cleverness and grit help them succeed against the odds.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://ls.pushkininstitute.ru/lsslovar/index.php?title=%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%83%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B4%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%BE%D0%BA/C1-C2">Russian children’s stories often</a> revolve around <a href="http://ec-dejavu.ru/i/Ivan_durak.html">a central character named Ivan Durak</a> – <a href="https://nukadeti.ru/skazki/skazki-pro-ivana-duraka">Ivan the Stupid</a>. He’s the third brother, inferior to his older brothers, one of whom is typically smart, the other average. When the main character is not explicitly called “stupid” he is portrayed as lazy, <a href="https://nukadeti.ru/skazki/po-shhuchemu-veleniyu">lounging in bed all day</a> <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7968651W/Ivan_the_Fool">while his older brothers work hard</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young boy rides a clay stove down a snowy hill, following a fancy sled and what looks like a soldier on a horse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453695/original/file-20220322-20-1l6mtul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1913 illustration from Russian folk tale ‘At the Pike’s Behest,’ also known as ‘Emelyan the Fool.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77435520">В. Курдюмов</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Russian fairy tales such as “<a href="https://stpetersburg-guide.com/folk/pike.shtml">By the Pike’s Wish</a>,” “<a href="https://www.russianamericancompany.com/the-frog-princess/">Princess Frog</a>” and “<a href="https://www.russianamericancompany.com/sivka-burka-1/">Sivka Burka</a>,” the main character eventually prevails. He doesn’t win through his own virtues, though, but through the intervention of a magical being – a fish, a frog, a horse – that does all the hard work while the main character claims credit. </p>
<p>These Russian folk tales seem to suggest that the recipe for success is not to be too smart or work too hard, like the two older brothers, but to sit tight in hope that magic will take care of everything. </p>
<h2>Facing the greatest challenge</h2>
<p>Most adults don’t walk around thinking about the fairy tales they heard as children. However, these early stories, experienced through the magnifying glass of childhood emotions, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/203434/the-uses-of-enchantment-by-bruno-bettelheim/">shape our understanding about the world</a>. They determine the repertoire of our actions, especially in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/036215370403400305">times of crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Fairy tales prepare us to recognize real-life heroes and villains, love and betrayal, good and evil. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190689322.003.0013">They guide our actions as we navigate these dichotomies</a>.</p>
<p>The difference in traditional Russian and Ukrainian folklore might in part explain the difference between the Russian and Ukrainian armies’ performances. </p>
<p>When facing the greatest challenge of their lifetimes, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/03/russia-struggle-ukraine-soldiers-morale-00013397">those in the Russian army failed to perform well and demonstrated poor morale</a>. By contrast, <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-has-fatally-underestimated-ukrainians/">Ukrainians rose to the challenge in a spectacular way</a>, transforming themselves through grit and determination from the underdog to the hero who just might succeed against all odds.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mia Bloom receives funding from the Minerva Research Initiative and the Office of Naval Research, any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense. Bloom is also the International Security Fellow at New America.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Moskalenko receives funding from the Minerva Research Initiative and the Office of Naval Research. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.</span></em></p>
The Russian army has fared poorly and the Ukrainian military has fared well, defying experts’ predictions about the war in Ukraine. Can children’s fairy tales help explain the difference?
Mia M. Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University
Sophia Moskalenko, Research Fellow in Social Psychology, Georgia State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161188
2021-05-25T19:39:37Z
2021-05-25T19:39:37Z
Who’s afraid of Cruella de Vil? New stories are humanising female villains of old
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402247/original/file-20210524-23-uhh43w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3180%2C1796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disney’s new live-action Cruella transforms the infamous Dalmatian killer into an aspiring fashion designer who is driven to embrace the darkness and a life of crime. </p>
<p>It is the latest adaptation reclaiming female villains of fairy tales and children’s literature, providing them with an origin story — and extending them a degree of sympathy. </p>
<p>The female villain is common, in part, because of the Brothers Grimm. </p>
<p>As the Brothers collected and published fairy tales in the early 19th century, they progressively changed these stories to <a href="https://theconversation.com/reader-beware-the-nasty-new-edition-of-the-brothers-grimm-34537">conform to appropriate morality</a> for children. These alterations included silencing strong female characters and demonising powerful women — ensuring evil behaviour was clearly contrasted with good. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reader-beware-the-nasty-new-edition-of-the-brothers-grimm-34537">Reader beware: the nasty new edition of the Brothers Grimm</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Children’s literature followed suit, with easily understandable divides between the good (and beautiful) and the evil (and ugly). L. Frank Baum’s one-eyed Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was designated the “bad witch” in sharp contrast to the good witch, and to Dorothy. </p>
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<p>But recent adaptations of these stories discard the usual focus on the “good” princess or heroine. </p>
<p>Instead of consigning the female villain to a simplistic caricature of evil, films such as Maleficent (the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty) and the musical Wicked (the Wicked Witch of the West) offer nuanced (and newly beautiful) depictions of iconic foes.</p>
<h2>An inhuman beast?</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="101 Dalmatians still" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402249/original/file-20210524-19-1162rg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Disney’s 1961 animated 101 Dalmatians, Cruella is angular and unattractive, with spindly limbs and a shock of half-black and half-white hair. She is a spinster; not maternal in any respect. She not only lacks her own children but seeks to harm puppies. She feels no concern for the young and vulnerable. </p>
<p>Vanity is Cruella’s final flaw, evident in her excessive interest in her appearance and the pleasure she takes in luxury objects, clothing and make-up.</p>
<p>The jazzy song that punctuates the film is thick with condemnation. Cruella is “like a spider waiting for the kill”, “a devil”, “vampire bat” and “inhuman beast” who “ought to be locked up and never released”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXTQWVqBDWY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Wanting to wear puppy fur is certainly alarming enough, but Disney’s animated film provides no other details about Cruella’s dark side, nor her motivations. </p>
<p>In Dodie Smith’s children’s novel on which the film was based, Cruella marries a furrier. The large stock of furs and coats she has not yet paid for are destroyed by the Dalmatians and her own Persian cat (who avenges the deaths of many litters of kittens that were drowned by Cruella) leaving the de Vils to flee England for their unpaid debts.</p>
<p>This new Cruella film encourages compassion by depicting the events that lead to a conscious embrace of wrongdoing. This incarnation was once Estella de Vil (Emma Stone), orphaned at 12 and growing into a teenager with a record of petty crime and a dream to work in the fashion industry.</p>
<p>Her fashion boss and mentor Baroness von Helman (Emma Thompson) advises Cruella not to care “about anyone or thing”, providing a model of self-absorption and vanity for emulation.</p>
<p>Cruella says she “was born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad” — but this film makes clear she was “made” from the damage and loss orphaned Estella experiences. </p>
<h2>Embracing the monster</h2>
<p>The current recuperation of the female villain follows the makeover of Gothic monsters such as the vampire in popular fiction and film. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vampires are repulsive and threatening. From True Blood to Twilight, today’s vampires are more commonly depicted as attractive love interests. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Twilight movie still" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402463/original/file-20210524-17-13k3ixp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edward Cullen was not your grandmother’s vampire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Summit Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The stories we tell have begun to both embrace the monster, and explain how they were created. Many cultures have lost faith in the grand narratives provided by former certainties in life such as religion. A sharp divide between good and evil is no longer as easy to maintain. </p>
<p>Well-known stories intended for children, such as those reshaped by the Brothers Grimm, were typically based on unambiguous morals that rewarded the good and punished the bad. </p>
<p>These new live-action adaptations introduce a more complicated sense of morality. While the actions of female villains may still be disturbing, the focus on their ill-treatment in early life humanises them and dismantles the idea of people being inherently “evil”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Maleficent production image." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402468/original/file-20210524-13-y4wdsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some are not born evil, these reworking say, they have evilness thrust upon them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The short form of traditional fairy tales and children’s novels can offer minimal scope for characterisation, leaving us none the wiser as to what motivates the villain. </p>
<p>Why does Hans Christian Andersen’s disgusting Sea Witch (immortalised as Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid) <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_fairy_tales_of_Hans_Christian_Andersen_(c1899).djvu/156">feed a toad</a> from her mouth and make a doomed bargain with the poor mermaid? Andersen’s story (and the Disney film) give us no clues — but perhaps the <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a28333685/little-mermaid-remake-cast-release-date-plot-trailer/">upcoming</a> live-action adaptation will.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-grown-ups-still-need-fairy-tales-87078">Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Expansion of the stories of villains such as Maleficent, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Cruella not only complicate naïve ideas about good and evil, but also allow us to take pleasure in aligning ourselves with the antihero. </p>
<p>Just so long as no puppies are harmed in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith has previously received Australian Research Council funding. </span></em></p>
Today’s stories embrace the monster — and explain how she was created.
Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159797
2021-04-27T15:12:09Z
2021-04-27T15:12:09Z
Shrek at 20: celebrating the film’s unique brand of animated anarchy and sardonic irreverence
<p>While Pixar’s groundbreaking <a href="https://theconversation.com/toy-story-at-25-how-pixars-debut-evolved-tradition-rather-than-abandoning-it-149873">Toy Story</a> often achieves plaudits for the shot in the arm it gave Hollywood animation in the mid-1990s, it’s impossible to ignore the influence of DreamWorks’ 2001 computer-animated hit Shrek. The grubbier and more sarcastic sibling to Woody and Buzz, Shrek was a milestone for American cartoons that paved the way for a unique brand of animated anarchy and sardonic irreverence that still holds sway across the industry today.</p>
<p>Back in 2001, animation’s digital revolution was slowly but surely gaining momentum. In the US alone, the first Toy Story in 1995 was followed by Pixar’s insect-themed epic A Bug’s Life three years later, and then a second outing for Woody and the gang in Toy Story 2 in 1999. There was also a handful of other features, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaI7ZPA9I1c&ab_channel=TrailersPlaygroundHD">Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within</a> (2001) to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7vGlqs3-cE&ab_channel=ParamountMovies">Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius</a> (2001), which further tested the possibilities of computer-generated (CG) characters to varying degrees of success. And then came Shrek.</p>
<p>DreamWorks had already dipped its toes into the digital waters with its CG debut <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_qRwVXWYQ&ab_channel=ParamountMovies">Antz</a> in 1998. A film about an underground ant colony, it seemed to gazump rival feature A Bug’s Life, which would appear in cinemas only a month later. </p>
<p>The competition between the two films was further stoked by the fact that DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg had been fired from Walt Disney in 1994 by then-president and CEO Michael Eisner. Katzenberg, it seemed, had beaten Disney to the punch.</p>
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<p>Antz grossed a healthy US$171.8 million internationally (though roughly half of A Bug’s Life’s US$363.3 million). It was next followed by the studio’s brief forays into traditional animated production with The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado. </p>
<p>However, it was the commercial and critical success of Shrek that really announced Katzenberg’s DreamWorks as a major force in a blossoming US animation industry. The film earned a whopping US$488 million internationally, cementing DreamWorks as a serious competitor for animation audiences and posing the first recognised threat to Pixar’s CG supremacy.</p>
<h2>Beyond ‘Once Upon a Time…’</h2>
<p>Adapted from William Steig’s 1990 picture book of the same name, the animated Shrek set the template for a particular kind of adult-oriented cartoon. Magic kingdoms were firmly out, and mud baths and swamps were very much in. </p>
<p>The film’s ironic distance, scornful approach to its fairy tale subject matter, smattering of literary and film references, as well as its broader pop culture literacy, have all since impacted the tone of several blockbuster animated features. </p>
<p>The “tech” of Shrek also marked a step-up for computer graphics. This included the sophisticated digital rendering of fire and water, and the illusion of convincing human characters. </p>
<p>Behind-the-scenes, Shrek was no less revolutionary in the handling of its A-list celebrity voice cast. Animation studios have a longstanding history of casting bankable stars to voice their cartoon creations. However, actors Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow were positioned front and centre as part of the film’s advertising campaign in ways <a href="https://ew.com/article/2001/05/18/shrek-should-outearn-mummy-returns/">not seen before in the marketing</a> of mainstream animated features.</p>
<h2>Continuing the Legacy</h2>
<p>Shrek’s appeal since its original release in April 2001 has steadily increased. This has been thanks to a profitable franchise, including a cycle of big-screen sequels (three between 2004 and 2010) and spin-offs like 2011’s Puss in Boots, and Christmas and Halloween TV specials. There have also been video game adaptations, a stage musical on Broadway and a theme park ride. All have preserved and expanded the Shrek mythology. </p>
<p>As the original film hits its 20th anniversary, accompanied by the hashtag #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shrek20thanniversary">Shrek20thAnniversary</a>, numerous animators and artists have been vocal across social media in their praise for the film. Previously unseen artwork have been shared alongside storyboards, early CGI test material and even audio footage of comedian <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3049545/chris-farley-was-originally-the-voice-of-shrek-and-footage-has-finally-surfaced">Chris Farley’s original performance as Shrek</a> (Farley died in December 1997 having recorded a substantial portion of the role, only to be replaced by Myers).</p>
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<p>The Hollywood trade press has also got in on the act of championing Shrek’s legacy. <a href="https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/shrek-20th-anniversary-soundtrack-1234955248/">Variety recently heralded</a> Shrek’s soundtrack as a “millennial cultural touchstone,” explaining how its turn towards contemporary music instead of original songs marked a first for popular animated features (the soundtrack featured on the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2001/top-billboard-200-albums">Billboard 200</a> and also achieved a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shrek-music-from-the-original-motion-picture-debuts-on-vinyl-300863723.html">Grammy nomination</a>). </p>
<p>Shrek’s signature hit – Smash Mouth’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jWHffIx5E&ab_channel=SmashMouthVEVO">All Star</a>” which served to introduce the bad-tempered ogre in the film’s opening sequence – was certainly a departure from Disney’s “A Whole New World” and “Circle of Life”. Yet its bombastic tone once again fitted the film’s playful anti-Disney sensibility. Shrek’s frequent aims at the Mouse House’s recognisable narrative formula and saccharine sentimentality were deemed a pointed dig at Katzenberg’s former employers too.</p>
<p>The future of Shrek on the big screen remains unresolved. <a href="https://screenrant.com/shrek-5-every-confirmed-detail-so-far/">A fifth film has been in the works for years</a>, cancelled, revived, and then cancelled again. The current word is that Shrek, Donkey and Fiona might yet appear in another instalment.</p>
<p>For fans of the iconic Shrek, it’s definitely not ogre yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Holliday does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Released in 2001, it was the first film to really give Pixar a run for its money.
Christopher Holliday, Lecturer in Film Studies, Department of Liberal Arts, King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/138299
2020-05-25T20:08:03Z
2020-05-25T20:08:03Z
P is for Pandemic: kids’ books about coronavirus
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334603/original/file-20200513-156665-16aredc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1098%2C778&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Documents/covid-19-childrens-book.pdf">NSW Health</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With remarkable speed, <a href="https://nycdoe.libguides.com/COVID-19ebooks/free?fbclid=IwAR1Tsw0Qt30ACAPTr9BLPC9Q-Z7QLgNVTBR-N--OVaDQngbD7R4wxhHgGg0">numerous children’s books</a> have been published in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis, teaching children about coronavirus and encouraging them to protect themselves and others. </p>
<p>Children’s literature has a long history of exploring difficult topics, with original fairy tales often including gruesome imagery to teach children how to behave. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=areW3sCQf1YC">Little Red Riding Hood</a> was eaten by the wolf in a warning to young ladies to be careful of men. <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/grimm021.html">Cinderella</a>’s stepsisters had their eyes pecked out by birds as punishment for wickedness. </p>
<p>More recently, picture books have dealt with issues including <a href="https://www.readbrightly.com/books-to-help-you-talk-to-your-kids-about-911/">September 11</a>, <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/childrens-books">the Holocaust</a>, <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/08/childrens-books-about-climate-change/">environmental issues</a> and <a href="https://www.readbrightly.com/books-to-help-kids-understand-death/">death</a>. </p>
<p>But this wave of coronavirus books is unique, being produced during a crisis rather than in its aftermath. </p>
<p>Many have been written and illustrated in collaboration between public health organisations, doctors and storytellers, including <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Documents/covid-19-childrens-book.pdf">Hi. This is Coronavirus</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-29/northern-territory-coronavirus-anna-ralph-childrens-book/12175812">The Magic Cure</a> both produced in Australia. </p>
<p>These books explore <a href="https://www.stuckinsidebook.com/">practical ways</a> young children can avoid infection and transmission, and <a href="https://nursedottybooks.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/dave-the-dog-coronavirus-1-1.pdf">provide strategies</a> parents can use to help children cope with anxiety. Some books feature <a href="https://freebooks.undercats.media/corona/">adult role models</a>, but the majority feature <a href="https://yeehoopress.com/coronavirus-picturebook/">children</a> as heroes.</p>
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<p>The best of these books address children not just as people who might fall ill, but as active agents in the fight against COVID-19. </p>
<h2>Our top picks</h2>
<p><strong><a href="https://nosycrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Coronavirus-A-Book-for-Children.pdf">Coronavirus: A Book for Children</a></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336914/original/file-20200522-57705-1c8hbb5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Written in consultation with an infectious diseases specialist and illustrated by Axel Scheffler of The Gruffalo, this nonfiction picture book offers children information about transmission, symptoms and the possibility of a cure, reassuring readers that doctors and scientists are working on developing a vaccine. </p>
<p>The last few pages answer the question “what can I do to help?” </p>
<p>Coronavirus: A Book for Children shows a diversity of characters taking action to manage the effects of the virus. Children are told to practice good hygiene, not to disturb their parents while they are working from home and keep up with their schoolwork. </p>
<p>It is also hopeful: reinforcing the idea that the combination of scientific research and practical action will lead to a point when “this strange time will be over”. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/2020-04/My%20Hero%20is%20You,%20Storybook%20for%20Children%20on%20COVID-19.pdf">My Hero is You! How kids can fight COVID-19</a></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336915/original/file-20200522-57720-1isfjh6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Written and illustrated by Helen Patuck, My Hero is You! is an initiative of a <a href="https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/iasc-reference-group-on-mental-health-and-psychosocial-support-in-emergency-settings">global reference group</a> on mental health, and is a great book for parents to read with their children.</p>
<p>Sara, daughter of a scientist, and Ario, an orange dragon, fly around the world to teach children about the coronavirus. </p>
<p>Ario teaches the children when they feel afraid or unsafe, they can try to imagine a safe place in their minds. </p>
<p>Based on a global survey of children and adults about how they were coping with COVID-19, My Hero is You! translates the results of this comprehensive survey into a reassuring story for kids experiencing fear and anxiety. It also acknowledges the global nature of the health crisis, showing children they are not alone.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.princessinblack.com/download/pib-coronavirus.pdf">The Princess in Black and the Case of the Coronavirus</a></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336953/original/file-20200522-57661-vnzy72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The Princess in Black is an existing series, with seven books published since 2014 and over <a href="https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/News/News-Item-302">one million copies</a> sold. In the books, Princess Magnolia enlists children to help with a problem she cannot defeat alone: here, of course, that problem is coronavirus. </p>
<p>For fans of the series, Magnolia and her pals are familiar characters encouraging readers to solve the problem of coronavirus by washing their hands, staying at home, and keeping their distance. </p>
<p>The Princess in Black shows a deft use of humour to introduce children to complex ideas in a familiar and friendly manner. </p>
<h2>Little heroes</h2>
<p>Children’s books have often sought to entertain and educate children at the same time. The immediacy of these books, with their practical solutions and strategies for children to manage fears and anxieties about sickness and isolation, is a phenomenon we haven’t seen before.</p>
<p>With free online distribution and simple messages, these books present children with individual actions that have both personal and collective benefits. </p>
<p>Importantly, the heroes identified in these stories include children themselves. Their fears are acknowledged, but at the same time they are told they can fight the virus successfully. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>A frequently updated list of children’s books on the pandemic is available from the New York School Library System’s <a href="https://nycdoe.libguides.com/COVID-19ebooks/free?fbclid=IwAR1Tsw0Qt30ACAPTr9BLPC9Q-Z7QLgNVTBR-N--OVaDQngbD7R4wxhHgGg0">COVID-19 page</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristine Moruzi has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Venzo and Shih-Wen Sue Chen do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Produced during a crisis, an emerging collection of books talk to kids about coronavirus.
Shih-Wen Sue Chen, Senior Lecturer in Writing and Literature, Deakin University
Kristine Moruzi, Research fellow in the School of Communication & Creative Arts, Deakin University
Paul Venzo, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/132646
2020-05-11T11:49:52Z
2020-05-11T11:49:52Z
The tooth fairy as an essential worker in a child’s world of wonder
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332784/original/file-20200505-83745-19qrqez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C669%2C5028%2C2522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smiling schoolboys reveal their missing teeth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-photo/534934306?adppopup=true">Anthony Asael/Art in All of Us /Contributor via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the midst of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/covid-19">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, adults and children alike have called on political leaders and health experts to address a concern: Is now a bad time to lose a tooth? </p>
<p>In April, the <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/get-your-teeth-ready-kids-legault-adds-tooth-fairy-to-list-of-essential-services-in-quebec-1.4886542">premier of Quebec, François Legault,</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/07/828839205/the-easter-bunny-is-an-essential-worker-new-zealands-ardern-says">New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern</a> assured worried children that the tooth fairy is, indeed, an essential worker. </p>
<p>Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, followed those assurances with a guarantee of his own. The tooth fairy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/04/23/dr-fauci-will-smith-snapchat-show-tooth-fairy-mxp-vpx.hln/video/playlists/atv-trending-videos/">he said</a>, is not at risk of infection.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://folklore.indiana.edu/about/faculty/barker-k.html">professor of folklore</a> who has <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NrSXDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=folk+illusions&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjckbTM9IvoAhVLlKwKHTEyDN8Q6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=folk%20illusions&f=false">researched the blurry lines between reality and fantasy in children’s worldviews</a>, I am delighted that our leaders have not mistaken childishness for triviality. Few folkloric traditions embody the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/ana-veciana-suarez/article238440968.html">wonder of childhood</a> more clearly than the tooth fairy. The shedding of teeth, after all, marks important developmental milestones. And children have long capitalized on the occasion as an opportunity to participate in magical rituals. </p>
<p>For centuries, in traditions much older than the tooth fairy customs we know today, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/tooth-fairy-or-tooth-mouse-4-legends-from-around-the-world">children in Europe</a>, Asia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/ever-wonder-where-the-tooth-fairy-comes-from/2012/04/26/gIQAz5urjT_story.html">Africa</a> and Oceania have practiced myriad rituals related to losing teeth. They include <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/HZbfAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">reported traditions</a> in Mongolia of wrapping a shed tooth in meat and feeding it to a dog, and crushing lost teeth in Tibet between stones and tossing the dusty remains into the wind. Greek children, meanwhile, throw teeth on roofs, while in Xinjiang teeth are sewn into the shoulders of winter coats.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C58%2C2052%2C1232&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331586/original/file-20200429-51508-132qr56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Losing baby teeth is an important rite of passage in many cultures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/losing-baby-teeth-is-an-important-rite-of-passage-in-many-news-photo/1153507510?adppopup=true">Joey McLeister/Star Tribune via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Usually taught to children by their parents, these magical acts are often accompanied by traditional sayings calling on the powers that be to bring new, stronger teeth as replacements. In one widespread European tradition closely related to the 18th-century French fairy tale “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/09/14/where-did-the-tooth-fairy-come-from/#75ff3a0159d4">La Bonne Petite Souris</a>,” children leave their shed teeth under a pillow for a mouse who exchanges it for money. </p>
<h2>A magical rise in popularity</h2>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Good_People.html?id=DLmoKKkxAX0C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&ppis=_e#v=onepage&q&f=false">Folklorists generally agree</a> that Americans’ tooth-for-money fairy rituals, possibly derived from European variants, arose around the turn of the 20th century. Like candy on Halloween, however, the tooth fairy was not a nationwide custom until the 1950s. </p>
<p>We can only hypothesize about the economic and cultural forces that propelled the tooth fairy’s rise to stardom, but possible causes include changing cultural attitudes toward parenting, postwar affluence and a rising number of literary and film portrayals of fairies. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332500/original/file-20200504-83725-v6v4ne.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Image by Natalia Ovcharenko.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/tooth-fairy-tooth-teeth-fairy-2356398/">Pixabay</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the 21st century, the tooth fairy is clearly a mainstay of popular and folk culture, but tooth fairy practices differ greatly. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1987.9914544">one study suggests</a> that Jewish children are less likely to believe in the tooth fairy than Christian children. Some children write letters to the tooth fairy, while other families have the tooth fairy leave letters encouraging dental hygiene. </p>
<p>Many children, of course, place their teeth under their pillows hoping the fairy will replace it with money while they sleep. But just last semester, an insightful undergraduate student at Indiana University shared an interesting variation with me. The student reported that she placed her lost teeth in a cup of water and left it on the kitchen counter. Over the span of a few days, the tooth fairy would fill the cup with a few coins each night until the tooth finally disappeared. Only then could she retrieve her money. </p>
<p>Placing the shed tooth in water is a custom in other parts of the world, most famously in Norway, but the origins of my student’s familial custom remain murky. After interviewing her relatives, she learned that her grandfather may have simply created their tooth-in-water tradition when he became bored with searching around under a pillow in the dark. Such is the nature of the search for folkloric origins. </p>
<p>Some have suggested that the tooth fairy introduces children to the <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/cfr/article/view/25280">capitalist ethos of American culture</a>. I’m not so sure. Considering adults’ central role in tooth fairy customs, it seems just as likely that the tooth fairy grants grownups, for a just little while, reemergence into a child’s magical world. If I’m right about that, it’s no wonder that our leaders have deemed the tooth fairy’s work to be essential during this unsettling time.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon Barker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
During this unsettling time, global leaders have assured children and adults alike that the tooth fairy, free from the risk of infection, is indeed an essential worker.
Brandon Barker, Assistant Professor of Folklore, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105625
2018-11-02T09:57:11Z
2018-11-02T09:57:11Z
Disney’s Nutcracker: the latest movie to explore the dark side of fairy tales
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243449/original/file-20181101-83661-d59ko4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Laurie Sparham © 2017 Disney Enterprises, Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disney’s latest offering, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5523010/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Nutcracker and the Four Realms</a> comes with a warning for anyone who might imagine lighthearted, singing, dancing holiday entertainment. <a href="https://ew.com/movies/2017/12/19/nutcracker-and-the-four-realms-trailer/">“The legend you know has a dark side.”</a>. So be warned.</p>
<p>The film opens on a sombre note: the Stahlberg children face “<a href="https://disney.co.uk/movies/nutcracker-explore-the-realms">their first Christmas without their mother</a>”, It’s a curious twist, introduced presumably by the movie’s script writers, which appears neither in the original fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann nor Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, both of which inspired the film.</p>
<p>As if being losing her mother is not enough, heroine Clara Stahlberg soon faces a whole range of spooky creatures – including a wonderfully creepy Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger – bent on destroying the magical realms her late mother created. </p>
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<p>It is a long way away from such Disney classics as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097757/?ref_=nv_sr_2">The Little Mermaid</a> (1989), which turned Hans Christian Andersen’s complex and often grim fairy tale into a cheerful children’s story with a romantic happy ending.</p>
<p>But this change of tone is right on trend. For the past decade or so, cinema has increasingly transformed well-known children’s stories into chilling adult fantasies. Terry Gilliam’s 2005 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355295/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Brothers Grimm</a>, for example, explored the dark reality and sometimes horror behind the familiar stories.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243455/original/file-20181101-83648-1snkbar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Truth is much more terrible than fiction: Monica Bellucci as the Mirror Queen in The Brothers Grimm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dimension Films</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1735898/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Snow White and the Huntsman</a> (2012) and its follow up <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381991/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Huntsman: Winter’s War</a> (2016) aim to draw on the popularity of action-fantasies such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Lord of the Rings</a> (2001-3) and the epic TV drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Game of Thrones</a> (2011-19). <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1428538/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters</a> (2013) reimagines the eponymous lost children of Grimm’s original tale as gun slinging professional killers. A review in <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/01/25/hansel-and-gretel-review/1864211/">USA Today</a> warned parents not “make the mistake of taking the kids to this blood-spattered revenge-fest”.</p>
<p>We’re seeing the same sort of thing on television, too. Netflix’ latest release, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7569592/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina</a>(2018), reimagines the popular 1990s sitcom, starring Melissa Joan Hart as the teenage witch, as “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45989783">something a lot darker and scarier</a>”. Rather than being concerned with the usual teenage romances and quick spells to help with make up and home work, the new Sabrina has to face satanic cults and evil forces that threaten mankind.</p>
<h2>Dreams and fears</h2>
<p>But what is behind this focus on the darker side of fairy tales? If looking closely at the core of most of these stories, we realise that they almost always have a rather dark core, where people are eaten, maimed or tortured. </p>
<p>In Grimm’s version of Cinderella, the ugly step sisters mutilate their feet to fit into the golden slippers, while the evil queen in Snow White is forced to dance herself to death in red-hot shoes. Yet, for a long time, cinematic representations of these stories tended to eschew the scarier bit and firmly focused on the happily ever after.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243450/original/file-20181101-83657-1c0yg1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fairy tale tinged with horror: Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2012 - Universal Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Enchanted-Screen-The-Unknown-History-of-Fairy-Tale-Films/Zipes/p/book/9780415990615">his book</a>, The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films, Jack Zipes, a well-known scholar and translator of fairy tales, suggests that for most children nowadays film adaptations of fairy tales “have become better known than the classical texts, which, in comparison, have virtually lost their meaning due to the fact that the films have replaced them”. Zipes suggests that this is especially true for the dark and complex fairy tales told by writers such as Andersen. It was a generation of fairy tales that expressed people’s darkest thoughts and fears, at a time when almost constant war, conflict and incurable illnesses plagued Europe.</p>
<p>Psychological <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_forgotten_language.html?id=NgJ_AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">studies on fairy tales</a> have sometimes drawn a distinction between myth and fairy tale – noting that one has a tragic and one has a happy ending. But this generates problems with stories such as Andersen’s <a href="http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMatchGirl_e.html">Little Match Girl</a> or <a href="http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheSteadfastTinSoldier_e.html">The Steadfast Tin Soldier</a>, both of which have a sad and tragic ending (spoiler: the match girl freezes to death while the tin soldier melts down in a stove). </p>
<p>These fairy tales lack the final consolation that J.R.R. Tolkien called “eucatastrophe” – or sudden happy ending – in his influential 1939 essay <a href="http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Eucatastrophe">On Fairy-Stories</a>. Many of the recent cinematic retellings of classic fairy tales blur the already shaky boundaries between myth and magic. This is illustrated nicely in “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”, which turns the ballet’s fight between the Mouse King and the gingerbread soldiers into an epic battle for the survival of the magical kingdoms.</p>
<h2>Growing up Grimm</h2>
<p>Fairy tales are also often considered to reflect the challenges of growing up. If this is the case, then maybe these confusing modern takes reflect the challenges faced by contemporary children and young adults? The new Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) has been described as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45989783">“woke” and a “feminist icon”</a>, Hansel and Gretel turn their childhood trauma into a profession by becoming witch hunters for hire and for Clara in Disney’s new film, her grief for her newly deceased mother is processed through fighting a battle defending the realm her late mother created. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243447/original/file-20181101-83651-3iqgc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as Hansel and Gretel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2013 - Paramount Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As growing up becomes more complex, so do family units, external challenges and relationships between characters.</p>
<p>Oral traditions of storytelling have always adapted myths and fairy tales to their respective times and places. The recent focus on the dark, confusing and threatening aspects of those stories no doubt reflects the challenges of our times. But not all is lost. Even this newer, darker and more epic retelling of The Nutcracker maintains the element of hope, happiness and Christmas cheer and so still has the power to enchant and console.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvie Magerstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The latest fairy tale movie from Disney has a dark twist, so it’s right on trend.
Sylvie Magerstaedt, Principal Lecturer in Media Cultures, University of Hertfordshire
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97042
2018-06-07T10:59:23Z
2018-06-07T10:59:23Z
How fairy tales have stood the test of time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222025/original/file-20180606-137291-gkez6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An illustration of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Brave Little Tailor.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Brothers Grimm have been dead more than 150 years, but they <a href="https://blog.calm.com/relax/lost-grimm-fairy-tale-is-first-ai-bedtime-story">recently released a new story</a> with a little help from artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>The Princess and the Fox was created after a group of writers, artists and developers used a program inspired by predictive text on phones to scan the collected stories of the Brothers Grimm to suggest words and similar phrases. Human writers then took over, to help shape the AI’s algorithmic suggestions into the latest Grimm fairy tale.</p>
<p>The new tale tells the story of a talking fox who helps a lowly miller’s son rescue a beautiful princess from the fate of having to marry a horrible prince she does not love.</p>
<p>But here’s the thing, the Brothers Grimm didn’t actually write their fairy tales in the first place. They collected them – from friends, servants, workers and family members. Fairy tales, of course, have always been retold. They come alive in the telling – whether that’s a child listening to an audio book in the car, watching Snow White and the Huntsman on DVD or singing along to Shrek The Musical in the theatre. </p>
<p>The Grimms’ fairy stories <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/grimms-fairy-tales-exerted-profound-2285773">were first published in 1812</a> and have never gone out of print. The Grimm Brothers were involved in the struggle for German independence. As part of the case for nationhood, they wanted to prove that Germans, as a distinct people, had their own folklore. They were political campaigners too, and among the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ttingen_Seven">Göttingen Seven</a> who refused to take an oath of loyalty to the new King of Hanover when he rejected a more liberal constitution. They lost their jobs as a result and Jakob Grimm – like many characters in the fairy tales – had to go into exile. </p>
<p>Since then Grimms’ Fairy Tales have been translated into a hundred languages and retold again and again. They have inspired thousands of other works, from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bloody_Chamber">Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIyV17TbdUA">The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221515/original/file-20180604-175438-12285dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The princess and the Fox was written in part by AI.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTUyODEzMjU2NiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfNzM0MTIxMjQ0IiwiayI6InBob3RvLzczNDEyMTI0NC9odWdlLmpwZyIsIm0iOjEsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwicENVWFVRQ24yMVJxWUl5emR6b0FweUo1R2hVIl0%2Fshutterstock_734121244.jpg&pi=33421636&m=734121244&src=NvspoIUya7T1JZ8IKLwJYA-1-41">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jakob Grimm wasn’t just a collector of folk tales either. He was also a philologist (someone who studies language) and lexicographer whose work is still influential today. As well as being a master storyteller, the ideas he developed are still being researched in universities.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_law">Grimm’s Law</a>, named after Jakob Grimm, looks at how sounds change as they pass from one language to another – “P” tends to become “F”, while “G” becomes “W” and so on. </p>
<h2>Happily ever after</h2>
<p>The Grimms’ fairy stories are still passed down through generations. And even though the cast of princesses and swineherds seem a very long way away from the world most of us inhabit, the stories are still a crucial part of our cultural heritage. The stories the brothers found in Northern Germany at the beginning of the 19th-century now belong to everyone. </p>
<p>As a child growing up in Oxford <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ganz">my father</a> – a refugee from Germany and, like Jakob, a philologist – used to tell me the Grimm’s story of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Prince">The Frog Prince</a> on our Sunday walks in the grounds of <a href="https://www.blenheimpalace.com/">Blenheim Palace</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221697/original/file-20180605-175414-168klyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blenheim Palace Gateway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my father’s version of the tale, the princess first met the frog by the lake – in reality built by Capability Brown for the first Duke of Marlborough – when she dropped her favourite plaything, a golden ball, into the water. When they lived happily ever after, the couple commemorated their meeting by putting golden balls on the top of Blenheim Palace. Now when I think of the story I think of Blenheim Palace, and I hear the splash of the frog in the lake, just as I thought I heard it long ago as a child. </p>
<p>This is exactly what stories can do, they fold all of their tellers and places together – and therein lies their mystery and their magic – once a story exists, it changes how we experience the world. And that will be the only test of “the new Grimm’s tale”, The Princess and the Fox – whether it will be retold and come to life in the telling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Ganz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fairy stories come alive in the telling — and the retelling.
Adam Ganz, Reader Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90935
2018-02-08T18:12:20Z
2018-02-08T18:12:20Z
Essays On Air: Why grown-ups still need fairy tales
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203934/original/file-20180130-170419-1952mqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fairy tales are extremely moral in their demarcation between good and evil, right and wrong. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcella Cheng/The Conversation NY-BD-CC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Originally for adults, many fairy tales can be brutal, violent, sexual and laden with taboo. When the earliest recorded versions were made by collectors such as the Brothers Grimm, the adult content was maintained. But as time progressed, the tales became diluted, child-friendly and more benign.</p>
<p>Adults consciously and unconsciously continue to tell them today, despite advances in logic, science and technology. It’s as if there is something ingrained in us – something we cannot suppress – that compels us to interpret the world around us through the lens of such tales.</p>
<p>That’s what we’re exploring on the latest episode of Essays On Air, the audio version of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/friday-essay-22955">Friday essay</a> series. Today, Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics at the University of Newcastle, is reading her essay <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-grown-ups-still-need-fairy-tales-87078">Why grown-ups still need fairy tales</a>.</p>
<p>Join us as we read to you here at Essays On Air, a podcast from The Conversation.</p>
<p>Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/essays-on-air/id1333743838?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Snow by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/Cinematic/Snow">David Szesztay</a></p>
<p>Mourning Song by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Mourning_Song">Kevin MacLeod</a></p>
<p>Jack and the Beanstalk by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1hLr5oeUog">UB Iwerks</a></p>
<p>Cinderella (1950), produced by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urGE_tcx9JA">Walt Disney</a></p>
<p>Candle in the Wind/Goodbye England’s Rose by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg_MIysNGIU">Elton John</a></p>
<p>P. I. Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, performed by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/">Kevin MacLeod</a> from Free Music Archive. </p>
<p><em>This episode was recorded by Eddie O'Reilly and edited by Jenni Henderson. Illustration by Marcella Cheng.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
We consciously and unconsciously tell fairy tales today, despite advances in logic and science. It’s as if there is something ingrained in us that compels us to see the world through this lens.
Sunanda Creagh, Senior Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90460
2018-02-04T18:05:52Z
2018-02-04T18:05:52Z
Why Call the Midwife satisfies our enduring need for heroic stories of fertility and birth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204185/original/file-20180131-38223-y1ufwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jenny Agutter and Laura Main in Call the Midwife.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Call the Midwife has returned for its seventh season, taking the BBC period drama through to London’s East End circa 1963. The series follows the lives of midwives and nuns at their headquarters, Nonnatus House. Portrayals of childbirth on screen are not unusual today, but rarely are the women who labour, especially working class ones, so candidly celebrated - and presented as the chief protagonists of the story.</p>
<p>In this new season’s first episode, a frightened, unmarried woman delivers a breech baby in a dingy tenement. She is brave, midwife Trixie Franklin tells her. This plotline echoes the show’s very first episode in 2012, when Trixie tells new midwife Jenny Worth that women giving birth in appalling conditions of poverty are heroines. In turn, Jenny passes this insight on to a mother who has miscarried, along with the Epsom salts to dry up her milk.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fWfAD0hVPLA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>The series centres on women’s acts of bravery. The desperate teacher who aborted her baby with a wire coathanger, facing potential criminal charges while she lies in hospital recovering from the subsequent hysterectomy. The young woman who delivers what appears to be a stillborn child in a caravan in the midst of a freezing winter. A grandmother who runs through the streets to bring an unconscious baby to the doctor.</p>
<p>Call the Midwife is a ratings success. Nostalgic and sentimental it may be, but it is also frank about enemas, bleeding, and inverted nipples. Each episode’s happy ending provides consolation and hope, earned through fear and hardship.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204187/original/file-20180131-38195-9jxgj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zandra Andersson in Call the Midwife: the women who give birth are the heroes of the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This kind of storytelling is rooted in a much older narrative form: the fairy tale. With a reputation for being saccharine and frivolous, fairy tales nonetheless frankly discuss motherhood and the suffering that leads to a “happily ever after”. The plight of a barren woman is a constant theme. In fairy tales, a woman’s labour can result in the birth of pigs, manifesting the lurid superstitions haunting early modern procreation. Those born with malformed or monstrous bodies feature not merely as villains, but also as long-suffering heroes, whose strength of character is rewarded. </p>
<p>Giambattista Basile’s The Tale of Tales (1634-36) was the first European publication of a full fairy-tale collection, an earthy offering with many tales recounting physical experiences of pregnancy and birth. In The Myrtle, a peasant’s persistent pleas to give birth, even to a myrtle branch, are literally answered. Her belly swells, the midwife indeed delivering her of a branch, which she lovingly plants in a pot. Largely set in close urban quarters, Basile’s tales cheerfully narrate all manner of bodily functions and physical transformations.</p>
<p>In late 17th-century France, the term “fairy tale” was itself coined by Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy and Henriette-Julie de Murat, aristocratic women of the court of Louis XIV. They were part of a thriving fairy-tale scene dominated by women writers, recounting in subversive fashion the cooperation of women in bearing and raising children. </p>
<p>In Murat’s The Pig King, a queen is cursed to bear a pig. Murat describes the stages of the Queen’s unfortunate pregnancy and the act of a friendly fairy, posing as midwife, who delivers the baby pig. The fairy arranges for the court be told the Queen miscarried, thus preserving her reputation, while the baby is placed in a stable.</p>
<p>Fairies, more powerful and majestic than kings, often perform as midwives, fertility specialists, and child carers in the French tales. Pregnancies are visible, pregnant women active. In d’Aulnoy’s The Beneficent Frog, a heavily pregnant queen dresses herself as Diana and drives a chariot, determined to rejoin her husband at their besieged castle. Though her intentions go awry, she meets a fairy-midwife to see her through a difficult childbirth. Pregnancy and childbirth become not simply an aside to the action, but part of the heroic journey.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204355/original/file-20180201-157495-1unburq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Golden Branch, illustrated by Gordon Browne, from Fairy Tales by the Countess D'Aulnoy, translated by J.R. Planché, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1888.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Disability, too, is represented in the tales. D’Aulnoy’s The Golden Branch has two heroes born with birth defects. The prince is hunchbacked with crooked legs, the princess gets about in a bowl, her legs broken. Just as Call the Midwife has dealt with the effects of Thalidomide and childhood polio, d’Aulnoy grappled with prejudice and mobility issues – the princess, for instance, improvising a pulley to reach the top of a tower as she can’t manage the stairs. </p>
<p>Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, discovering the market for children’s books, began to redact such descriptions of pregnancy and birth as inappropriate. Their Rapunzel in 1812 shows the signs of pregnancy after the prince’s visits to her tower, but in 1857, she has twins out of nowhere. Yet, despite this, stories are still told today in which women’s experience of motherhood is central, such as Danielle Wood’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22401556-mothers-grimm?from_search=true">Mothers Grimm</a> and Margo Lanagan’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2662169-tender-morsels?from_search=true">Tender Morsels</a>. </p>
<p>Call the Midwife is part of a larger narrative tradition in which heroism is rooted in women’s experience of reproductive health. In a world in which women’s reproductive rights are still debated, such storytelling is crucial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90460/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
BBC’s Call the Midwife is a celebration of working class women’s labour. In its frank, but sweet, discussion of childbirth, it has much in common with fairy tales.
Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario, Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90131
2018-01-17T09:11:37Z
2018-01-17T09:11:37Z
#MeToo, Sleeping Beauty and the often controversial history of fairy tales
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202114/original/file-20180116-53317-15pv91j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Henry Meynell Rheam</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s one of the more bizarre episodes to have seen the light of day since the #MeToo movement got going late last year. In November 2017, the British newspaper <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/23/mother-calls-sleeping-beauty-banned-primary-school-promotes/">The Telegraph</a> reported that the mother of a schoolboy who had brought home a copy of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty was calling for the text to be banned. The reason she gave was that the heroine could not have consented to the kiss that released her from her enchanted sleep. </p>
<p>This news story emerged in the aftermath of the revelations of serial sexual harassment allegations against numerous Hollywood stars, generating the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/metoo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Ehashtag">#MeToo</a> hashtag, with which millions of women worldwide shared their experiences of sexual molestation and objectification.</p>
<p>Yet despite the headline – “Mother calls for Sleeping Beauty to be banned” – when you actually read the piece it turns out that, in fact, the mother had suggested that rather than ban the story, the tale might be used as a starting point for discussing personal consent and bodily autonomy with children. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X1gutTERrkc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>This didn’t deter plenty of media outlets from jumping aboard the bandwagon – whether in support of the proposition that the fairy tale be banned or updated, or scoffing at the notion as needless censorship. And, of course, there was a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/sexist-sleeping-beauty-fairy-tales-may-need-updating-new-generation/">follow up</a> on the problems with other fairy tales.</p>
<h2>Small minds</h2>
<p>While fairy tales have existed for millennia as oral folktales, they first entered print in their recognisable form in the 17th century – and initially among the aristocracy. Over the subsequent 300 years or so, fairy tales have frequently been a source of controversy and ideological battle. </p>
<p>A cursory glance at only a few examples illustrates the variety of ways in which they have caused anxiety and consternation. The Neapolitan courtier, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giambattista-Basile">Giambattista Basile</a> first produced his collection of fairy tales (including Rapunzel and Cinderella) in 1634. A little later, the French académicien Charles Perrault published his <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/perrault.html">Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé</a> (1797), containing such prized tales as Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Blue Beard – and Sleeping Beauty. Written for an educated and urbane courtly readership, Perrault’s tales smuggle in risqué innuendo under the veil of moralism.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202115/original/file-20180116-53292-n3579o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Little Red Riding Hood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gustav Dore (1864)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Britain, one of the first and most influential critics of fairy tales was the philosopher John Locke. In his seminal treatise <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/some-thoughts-concerning-education-by-john-locke">Some Thoughts Concerning Education</a> (1693), Locke cautioned parents against allowing servants to frighten their children with tales of “<a href="https://maskofreason.wordpress.com/the-book-of-mysteries/know-your-ghosts/europe/rawhead-and-bloody-bones/">Raw-Head and Bloody Bones</a>”. </p>
<p>As a Rationalist, Locke feared that peasant superstition would damage the healthy development of children. In this period, fairy tales in Britain were circulated in the rude tradition of “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks">chapbooks</a>” (rough almanac prints sold by itinerant “chapmen”) and made little distinction between children and adult readers. </p>
<p>It was the pioneering publisher <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Newbery">John Newbery</a> (among others) who fused Locke’s respectable suspicion of rude chapbooks with an entrepreneurial appreciation of the potential market for children’s books. His <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-pretty-little-pocket-book">A Pretty Little Pocket-Book</a> (1744) cleverly replicated entertaining aspects of chapbooks – but shorn of their cruder elements in order to appease middle-class parents. This trend continued into the 19th century, when such celebrated authors and adaptors of fairy tales as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jan/18/theatre.classics">Hans Christian Andersen</a> and the brothers <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/censor.html">Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm</a>, all tailored and censored their writings to avoid causing upset.</p>
<h2>Culture police</h2>
<p>The Romantic generation of artists and writers venerated fairy tales for inspiring childhood fantasy and wonder and as texts that opposed the rationalism of the Enlightenment. But, in the wake of the French Revolution, political and literary culture came under immense scrutiny in Britain from a newly energised Conservative government and press. </p>
<p>With the increased <a href="http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/rom.2006.12.3.212">policing of culture</a> for signs of dangerous Jacobins and Democrats, conservative evangelical educationalists including <a href="http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_60.html">Hannah More</a> and <a href="https://18thcbritishchildrensliterature.weebly.com/sarah-trimmer.html">Sarah Trimmer</a> undertook the role of castigating children’s writers deemed politically and religiously seditious. One of their main targets was the anarchist philosopher – turned children’s publisher – <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Godwin">William Godwin</a> (the widower of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the father of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein). In order to escape censure, Godwin often published anonymously, or under a series of comical pseudonyms, such as Theophilus Marcliffe.</p>
<p>Godwin was involved with many Romantic-era writers now considered illustrious, but who at the time were often obscure figures. Two of these friends – the poet William Wordsworth and the essayist Charles Lamb – Godwin endeavoured to involve in his publishing, with revealing controversies.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202117/original/file-20180116-53310-1f9eooj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th-century depiction of Beauty and the Beast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walter Crane via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Charles Lamb and his sister Mary are best-known for their highly popular <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/26/tales-from-shakespeare-charles-and-mary-lamb-100-best-non-fiction-books">Tales from Shakespeare</a> (1807), which was published by Godwin. But when Godwin commissioned Charles to write an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey for children, the two got into an argument over Lamb’s initial refusal to tone down the gory scene in which the cyclops Polyphemus vomits the remains of Odysseus’ crewmen whom he had consumed. Godwin feared losing custom from a squeamish middle-class readership. </p>
<p>In 1811, Godwin wrote to Wordsworth – who had in youth briefly been his protégé – asking him to translate Beauty and the Beast from the French. Wordsworth’s cantankerous response is extraordinary (in part, he was irate for having to pay the postal fees). The poet responded to the philosopher that he could not bring himself to the task as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I confess there is to me something disgusting to me in the notion of a human Being consenting to mate with a Beast, however amiable his qualities of heart. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wordsworth was, in middle age, moving increasingly towards Toryism, and his astonishing response may be interpreted as underlining his rejection of Godwin’s radicalism. It also seems to indicate Wordsworth’s growing religious conservatism, as he justifies his statement by quoting from the poet John Milton’s <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Emilton/reading_room/pl/book_8/text.shtml">Paradise Lost</a> – describing Adam as set apart by God from animals: “Among the Beasts no mate for thee was found”.</p>
<p>Throughout their history, fairy tales have caused consternation and outrage among the religious and the secular, the progressive and the conservative, wrestling over what goes on in the minds of growing children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Newbon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The row over Sleeping Beauty is just the latest in a long history of controversy surrounding fairy tales for children.
Pete Newbon, Lecturer in Romantic and Victorian Literature, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88317
2018-01-02T20:51:01Z
2018-01-02T20:51:01Z
From sleeping beauty to the frog prince – why we shouldn’t ban fairytales
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198913/original/file-20171213-31706-1k3e5cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C167%2C452%2C377&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The famous 'kiss' scene from Sleeping Beauty. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently, an English mother, Sarah Hall, prompted <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/348b95fd-81d6-46d4-827e-73c727b8ceb6">worldwide media coverage</a> in response to her suggestion that Sleeping Beauty should be removed from the school curriculum for young children because of the “inappropriate sexual message” it sends about consent.</p>
<p>It’s not the only time fairytales have come under scrutiny recently. They are increasingly being <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/fairy-tales-children-stop-reading-parents-body-image-gender-roles-women-girls-sexism-a8067641.html">targeted</a> for “banning” within schools or avoidance by parents because of their perceived sexism, passive princesses, and reinforcement of marriage as girls’ ultimate goal. But can fairy tales actually be harmful as their critics believe?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198918/original/file-20171213-31671-jpmeti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Snow White’ by the Brothers Grimm, as illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr CC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fairy tales were once told – and then written – by adults for adult audiences. Early versions of many tales were often bawdy, salacious and replete with sexual innuendo. Since the Grimm Brothers removed these elements to reconfigure the fairy tale for children in the early 19th century, fairy tales have been seen as ideal, imaginative stories for young people. Almost all of us know the most popular stories from childhood reading or Disney films.</p>
<p>Tradition is not reason enough to continue a cultural practice that has become outmoded. Nevertheless, there are a range of reasons why these calls to restrict children from reading fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty are misguided.</p>
<h2>Children’s literature needn’t model ‘ideal’ behaviour</h2>
<p>Initially, most children’s literature was didactic and preoccupied with instructing children in correct morals and drilling them with information. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-twist-on-an-old-fairytale-as-a-daughter-dances-away-from-the-patriarchy-62953">A new twist on an old fairytale as a daughter dances away from the patriarchy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Adult readers today would struggle to find any pleasure in children’s literature prior to 1850, let alone today’s kids. In order to provide “delight” as well as “instruction”, children’s books represent a range of behaviour, including, in the case of fairy tales, the attempted murder of children, and punishments such as feet being severed and birds pecking out human eyes.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198920/original/file-20171213-31679-shw6dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper (illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia) Cinderella leaves behind a glass slipper.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr CC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Charles Perrault was the French author who added the famous motifs of the glass slipper and pumpkin coach to the Cinderella tale. In his version of Sleeping Beauty, after the Princess and the Prince marry in secret and have two children, the Prince’s mother is entirely unimpressed. Unsurprisingly within a fairy tale, the Prince’s mother is descended from ogres and she demands that the two children be killed and eaten for dinner by the whole family, with the macabre detail that the boy is to be served with Sauce Robert. </p>
<p>As in Snow White, in which the Huntsman refuses to kill the heroine and substitutes an animal heart for that of Snow White’s, no actual harm comes to the princess or her children but not before the ogress has prepared a tub full of vipers in a typical last-ditch attempt at villainy.</p>
<p>When we consider the norms of evil and violence in fairy tales – most of which are usually punished – it is bizarre to imagine every detail serving as a behavioural model for children. If we insisted that every character in children’s literature behaved precisely as we wish to teach children to behave then we would likely be presenting bland stories that no child would actually read.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198928/original/file-20171213-31679-1q1vy5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maleficent’s curse came to pass on the Princess’ 16th birthday…but the good fairies changed the curse so the Princess would not die, but sleep ‘til awakened by true love’s kiss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr CC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Considering plot points in context</h2>
<p>If we focus on one plot point, like the kiss in Sleeping Beauty, we can overlook the overall narrative context. </p>
<p>Within <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0410.html#perrault">the tale</a>, it becomes legend that the sleeping spell that has been cast on the Princess will only be broken after one-hundred years by the kiss of a king’s son. The narrative premise includes a premonition about how the magic will unfold and demands the resolution of the prince’s kiss to “save” the princess who must wait to be returned to consciousness. </p>
<p>While we might critique the emphasis on romance and passivity from a feminist perspective, the idea that the tale is promoting the equivalent of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case">Steubenville scenario</a> in which an unconscious young woman is sexually assaulted ignores the magical logic of the fantasy world. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/once-upon-a-time-a-brief-history-of-childrens-literature-75205">Once upon a time: a brief history of children's literature</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By that measure, we might see Prince Charming as a maniacal stalker as he demands all women in the kingdom try on the glass slipper in order to track down the attractive girl who failed to slip him her address before running off from the ball.</p>
<p>In Sleeping Beauty, it is significant that the Prince is told about the Princess being doomed to sleep until she is awakened by a king’s son. The Prince recognises that he is one of few people who can end the curse and resolves to tackle the brambles and thorns that surround the castle in which she is trapped in slumber. </p>
<p>Significantly, in the Grimms’ version, <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/grimm050.html">Little Brier-Rose</a>, numerous young men try to push themselves through the thorny hedge and die miserably in the attempt. However the hedge turns into flowers for the Prince and allows him through. Only the right man, with the right motivations, and the one who can release the Princess from the curse – is permitted through. </p>
<p>Rather than being a parallel to a kiss taken without consent, the Sleeping Beauty kiss is akin to a paramedic giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an unconscious person who would most usually want to be revived.</p>
<h2>Many versions of every fairy tale</h2>
<p>The version of Sleeping Beauty targeted in the UK is part of the <a href="https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/read-with-biff-chip-and-kipper/">“Biff, Chip and Kipper”</a> series designed to teach children to read. These books aim to educate children in the mechanics of reading and, as such, some of the literary nuance, symbolism, and visual artistry present in many fairy tales and picture books based upon them are no doubt lacking.</p>
<p>It is important to recall that there is no definitive version of a fairy tale. Calls for “bans” of a particular tale ignore variations between, say, Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty complete with cannibalistic, viper-wielding ogress and the Grimms’ less violent adaptation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-grown-ups-still-need-fairy-tales-87078">Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rather than eschewing fairy tales entirely, parents and educators would be better placed to look to quality adaptations and retellings by outstanding children’s authors, such as Neil Gaiman’s <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-sleeper-and-the-spindle-9781408859643/">The Sleeper and the Spindle</a>, which merges Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198932/original/file-20171213-31725-1ykanle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neil Gaiman’s The Sleeper and the Spindle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr CC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this tale, the Queen sets out on a journey armed with a sword to save the Princess and is the one who rescues her through a kiss. </p>
<p>There is even a picture book version called <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Sleeping-Bobby/Mary-Pope-Osborne/9780689876684">Sleeping Bobby</a> in which the gender roles are entirely reversed. Numerous parodies such as John Scieszka’s <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/ladybird/books/39078/the-frog-prince-continued/">The Frog Prince Continued</a>, in which the Princess’s married life with the frog is far from “happily ever after”, can also be a way for older readers to begin to question and play with the conventional gender expectations of some fairy tales.</p>
<h2>Reweaving old stories into new</h2>
<p>Fairy tales have been undergoing a continuous process of being rewoven into new stories for hundreds of years. </p>
<p>Just as many old tales have fallen out of favour and are no longer known, so too might some contemporary favourites eventually stop being told to children, potentially replaced by reworked versions or entirely new stories. </p>
<p>This storytelling method of old wine being poured into new bottles has a rich tradition and does not require our intervention. After all, the people who ban books in stories are always the villains, not the heroes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Fairytales are increasingly being targeted for giving girls inappropriate messages. But these stories have always evolved with the times, and talk of banning them is misguided.
Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87078
2017-11-23T19:12:47Z
2017-11-23T19:12:47Z
Friday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194925/original/file-20171116-19845-16kf5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C226%2C991%2C932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Edmund Dulac's 1910 illustration of Sleeping Beauty</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For as long as we have been able to stand upright and speak, we have told stories. They explained the mysteries of the world: birth, death, the seasons, day and night. They were the origins of human creativity, expressed in words but also in pictures, as evidenced by the cave paintings of <a href="http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/">Chauvet</a> (France) and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journey-oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685/">Maros</a> (Indonesia). On the walls of these caves, the paintings, which date back to around 30-40,000 BC, tell us <a href="https://faculty.gcsu.edu/custom-website/mary-magoulick/defmyth.htm">myths or sacred narratives</a> of the spirits of the land, the fauna of the regions, and humankind’s relationship to them.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hyena painting found in the Chauvet cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As humanity progressed, other types of stories developed. These were not concerned with the mysteries of the meaning of life but with everyday, domestic matters. While they were more mundane in the issues they explored, such tales were no less spectacular in their creativity and inclusion of the supernatural.</p>
<p>These smaller, everyday stories, combining the world of humans with fantastical creatures and seemingly impossible plots are now classified as <a href="http://www.syracusecityschools.com/tfiles/folder713/unit03-folk_tales_and_fairy_tales.pdf">fairy tales or folk tales</a>. Such tales, originating in pre-literate societies and told by the folk (or the average person), capture the hopes and dreams of humanity. They convey messages of overcoming adversity, rising from rags to riches, and the benefits of courage.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hansel and Gretel by Arthur Rackham.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fairy tales are also extremely moral in their demarcation between good and evil, right and wrong. Their justice references the ancient tradition of an eye for an eye, and their punishments are ruthless and complete. Originally for adults (sometimes for children), fairy tales can be brutal, violent, sexual and laden with taboo. When the earliest recorded versions were made by collectors such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brothers-Grimm">Brothers Grimm</a>, the adult content was maintained. But as time progressed and Christian morality intervened, the tales became diluted, child-friendly and more benign.</p>
<p>Despite these changes, it is apparent that fairy tales are still needed today, even for grown-ups. In an uncanny, sometimes inexplicable way, we consciously and unconsciously continue to tell them, despite advances in logic, science and technology. It’s as if there is something ingrained in us – something we cannot suppress – that compels us to interpret the world around us through the lens of such tales. And if we are not the tellers, we are the greedy consumers.</p>
<h2>‘Fairy tale’ princesses and ‘wicked witches’</h2>
<p>The 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for example, has been cast – like her life – as a fairy tale. Throughout the year, she has been commemorated in articles with headings such as “a <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/a-troubled-fairy-tale-princess-diana-remembered-20-years-later/article36064254/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">troubled fairy tale</a>”, “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/beyond-the-diana-fairytale-the-royals-endure/news-story/3adbbfdf7656e8f71bd2ce66f9f57cbe">beyond a fairy tale</a>”, and “<a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/world/myth-princess-diana-had-a-wicked-stepmother-just-another-fairy-tale">just another fairy tale</a>”. While these articles have endeavoured to deconstruct the familiar narrative, they have not been entirely successful.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fairy tale wedding? Prince Frederik and Princess Mary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerry Lampen/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of a fairy tale princess has also characterised the coverage of Princess Mary of Denmark and Duchess Catherine of Cambridge. Even after 13 years of marriage, our own “Aussie princess” is described as living a fairy tale, evident in 2017 media stories with titles such as “Princess Mary and Prince Frederik’s fairy tale royal romance”. Likewise, Kate, once a commoner, now a princess, has featured in articles titled “<a href="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/08/08/prince-william-kate-middleton-love-story/23070764/">Prince William and Duchess Kate’s fairy-tale love story</a>” and “<a href="https://writeroyalty.com/kate-middleton-most-royal-fairy-tale-gown-to-date/">Kate’s Most Royal Fairy Tale Gown (To Date)</a>”. As the titles of some of these stories show, they also feature the mandatory prince charming (William), or the prince who is revealed to be not-so-charming after all (Charles). Others extend the fairy tale formula to include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/aug/11/princess-dianas-wicked-stepmother-review-aka-why-di-never-stood-a-chance">wicked stepmothers</a> (Di’s real life stepmother) and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9707/17/fringe/diana.image/">wicked witches</a> (Camilla).</p>
<p>Is such recourse to fairy tales merely a media stunt to sell stories packaged in an easily consumable, gossip-laden snack box? Or do these articles reflect that deep-seated compulsion of ours to tell and, in turn, to listen to stories? The answers are “yes” and “yes”. But let’s forget the media’s role and look at the more interesting latter point.</p>
<p>Many fairy tales began thousands of years ago, the age depending on the tale itself. <a href="http://surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.html">Beauty and the Beast</a> has its origins in the story of <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/ancient-fairy-tale-cupid-and-psyche-where-love-endures-against-all-odds-003393">Cupid and Psyche</a> from the Latin novel, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Apuleius">The Golden Ass</a>, from the second century AD.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques-Louis David’s 1817 painting of Cupid and Psyche, the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this tale, the beautiful Psyche is visited at night by an invisible lover – hearing only a voice – whom she is led to believe is a monster. While recorded by the novelist, <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/apuleius/">Apuleius</a>, the story is almost certainly much older; perhaps having its origins in myth and ritual, and handed down by word of mouth.</p>
<p>The research of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/do-folktales-evolve-like-biological-species/281527/">Dr Jamie Tehrani</a> has unearthed an early date for <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ridinghood/">Red Riding Hood</a>, which he has traced back to at least 2,000 years; not originating in Asia, as once believed, but most likely in Europe. Other tales studied by Tehrani have been dated to as early as <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487">6,000</a> years ago. </p>
<p>Fairy tales are excellent narratives with which to think through a range of human experiences: joy, disbelief, disappointment, fear, envy, disaster, greed, devastation, lust, and grief (just to name a few). They provide forms of expression to shed light not only on our own lives but on the lives beyond our own. And, contrary to the impression that fairy tales always end happily ever after, this is not the case - therein lies much of their power. </p>
<p>They helped our ancestors make sense of the unpredictability or randomness of life. They repeated familiar experiences of unfairness, misfortune, bad luck, and ill-treatment and sometimes showed us how courage, determination and ingenuity could be employed even by the most disempowered to change the course of events. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Rackham’s Jack and the Beanstalk Giant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/">Jack and the Beanstalk</a>, for example, tells how a chance encounter with a stranger (an old man who provides magic beans) can bring about terrible danger (meeting a giant) but also terrific good fortune (acquiring a hen that lays golden eggs). The tale also celebrates how a poor boy can make the most of an arbitrarily dangerous situation that could have gone either way - being eaten or becoming rich - through his bravery and his intellect.</p>
<p>Fairytales also celebrated unexpected good fortune and acts of kindness and heroism, thereby reinforcing – even restoring – our faith in humanity. As tales of the folk, they not only entertained, but reflected the turmoils and triumphs of the lower classes, and enabled them to fantasise about how the “other half” lived. </p>
<h2>Cinderella and social criticism</h2>
<p>But tales of kings, queens, princes and princesses - of which there are many - are not only a means of mental escape for the poor. They are also a means of social criticism. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">19th century engraving of Gustave Doré’s Cendrillon - Cinderella. From Dore’s 1864 edition of Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals, originally published in 1697.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/index.html">Cinderella</a>, as recorded by <a href="https://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Perrault_fairy_tales.html">Charles Perrault</a>, the two stepsisters may have every material possession imaginable, but their cruelty renders them grotesque. And, of course, the lowly Cinderella triumphs. In the German version, <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/german.html">Aschenputtel</a>, recorded by the Brothers Grimm, the fate of the stepsisters is very different. Whereas Perrault’s version has the kindly Cinderella forgive them, the Grimms - clearly working from another tradition - describe how they have their eyes plucked out by pigeons! </p>
<p>Such stories of fantasising about a royal life and simultaneously despising it may have functioned as an emotional release similar to the ancient Greek experience of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/catharsis-criticism">catharsis</a> (the shedding of anxieties through watching outrageous tragedies and obscene comedies).</p>
<p>Taking the fascination with Diana’s life as a fairy tale, for example, we still employ the cathartic release of the genre to interrogate her and, for those of us so inclined, to find some meaning in the Di phenomenon. From the romantic courtship, to the wedding of the century and <a href="http://www.eonline.com/au/news/860008/the-epic-story-of-princess-diana-s-wedding-dress-3-months-25-feet-of-train-a-20-year-old-bride-and-a-fashion-legacy-for-the-ages">that dress</a>, to motherhood, glamour, betrayal, heartbreak, divorce, alienation and a new love cut short by an early death. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diana on her wedding day in 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mal Langsdon/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some, of course, have <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/diana-and-the-empire-of-phoney-emotion/20266#.Wf767GiCw2w">criticised</a> the warm, fuzzy emotionalism that has sprung from the fairy tale of Di’s life. If it is not to your liking, there are more robust tales with powerful messages of resistance and resilience. In tales such as <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/hanselgretel/index.html">Hansel and Gretel</a> and <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/donkeyskin/index.html">Donkeyskin</a>, the young protagonists are persecuted and abused by predators.</p>
<p>There is much to complain about in these tales from a politically correct or feminist perspective. They are violent and subversive: Gretel pushes a witch into an oven and in Perrault’s version of Donkeyskin, a king wishes to marry his daughter following the death of his wife. But they are more than narratives of abuse. They are also about courage and ingenuity on the part of the young survivors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miwa Yanagi, Gretel 2004, gelatin silver print.
Collection of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist and Yoshiko Isshiki Office, Tokyo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Donkeyskin, variants of which are extant in English (<a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/catskin.html">Catskin</a>) and German (<a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html">All-Kinds-Of-Fur</a>), champions the bravery and inherent goodness of the young heroine who dresses in the skin of a donkey and leaves the palace in order to escape her father’s desires. Her subsequent life as a servant, filthy, humiliated, reviled and renamed “Donkeyskin” by her fellow servants, never crushes her soul. </p>
<p>Within the fantasy and the convenient appearance of supernatural assistants or a romantic ending, both of which feature in Donkeyskin, these stories are powerful reminders that evil exists in the world in the form of human beings - but it is not definitive or unconquerable.</p>
<h2>Contemporary reworkings</h2>
<p>With the publication of the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales in 1812, artists and illustrators were the first interpreters of fairy tales. Visual responses have ranged from famous works by <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/dore/dore.html">Gustave Doré</a>, <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/rackham/rackham.html">Arthur Rackham</a> and <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/dulac/dulac.html">Edmund Dulac</a> to <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-100369/maurice-sendak">Maurice Sendak</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2008/dec/19/booksforchildrenandteenagers">Jan Pieńkowski</a>.</p>
<p>More dissident responses have included the photographs of <a href="http://www.fallenprincesses.com/photos/">Dina Goldstein</a>, whose Fallen Princesses series (2007-2009) is an astute response to the Disney princess phenomenon of unattainable, debilitating images of femininity and romance in bowdlerised versions of the original tales. Here, Goldstein critiques the superficiality of the princess stereotype, reminding us that it is as facile for children as the Diana fairy tale dream is for adults. </p>
<p>Before Goldstein, photographer Sarah Moon also challenged the dilution of fairy tales in the modern west through her provocative (sometimes banned) interpretation of <a href="https://www.lensculture.com/books/5843-little-red-riding-hood">Little Red Riding Hood</a>. In this powerful rendition, Moon takes her child reader back to the original and raw meanings embedded in the tale through her exploration of the theme of the human predator in the symbolic guise of the wolf.</p>
<p>Moon’s decision to return to the terror and drama of the Grimms’ version is testimony to the need to challenge the dilution and contamination of the tales. Even the Grimms were guilty of adding and subtracting to the material, particularly when it came to the insertion of overt Christian morality. Equally if not more so, the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Disneyfication">Disneyfication</a> of fairy tales has stripped them of the power and the pain to which Moon returns.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6MQq_jf_h5U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Writers and poets have also responded to the tales and, like Moon, have regularly sought to return them to their once formidable status. Women authors in particular have created powerful, sometimes heartbreaking – but always real and truthful – new versions. </p>
<p>Among the thousands of old tales in new clothes is the literature of second wave feminists, including the suite entitled <a href="https://letterpile.com/writing/The-Transformation-of-Anne-Sexton-The-Grimm-Complex">Transformations</a> (1971) by renegade poet Anne Sexton, who takes the domesticity of the original tales and mocks, ridicules, cherishes and – literally – transforms them. Angela Carter’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-the-bloody-chamber-and-other-stories">The Bloody Chamber</a> (1979), a magnificent collection of retellings of famous fairy tales, is full of female empowerment, sensuality and violence in a tour de force that both reinstates the potency of the stories and re-imagines them.</p>
<p>Novelist, poet and essayist, <a href="http://margaretatwood.ca/">Margaret Atwood</a> also transforms the originals. Her response to <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html">The Girl Without Hands</a>, which tells the story of a young woman who agrees to sacrifice her hands in order to save her father from the devil, in a <a href="http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/poetrylist/girl-without-hands-by-margaret-atwood.html">poem</a> of the same name is a profound meditation on the continuation of both abuse and survival.</p>
<p>The fairy tales first preserved by collectors such as the Brothers Grimm - retold, bastardised, edited, annotated, banned and reclaimed - belong ultimately to the folk who first told them. And the folk continue to tell and retell them. Closer to home than the Black Forest, a new show at the The Ian Potter Museum of Art contains work by international and Australian artists, including Tracy Moffatt and Sally Smart. The show returns - once again - to fairy tales to express social concerns and anxieties surrounding issues such as the abuse of power, injustice and exploitation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dina Goldstein, Snowy 2008 from the Fallen Princess series.
digital photograph</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fairy tales are, indeed, good to think with, and their retellings shed light on cultural, societal and artistic movements. Both children and adults should read more fairy tales – both the original and the transformed versions, for they are one of our cultural touchstones. </p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/exhib-date/2017-11-23/exhib/all-the-better-to-see-you-with-fairy-tales-transformed">All the better to see you with: Fairy tales transformed</a>, is on from Thursday 23 Nov 2017 to Sunday 4 Mar 2018 at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fairy tales can be brutal, violent, sexual and laden with taboo. But they are are excellent narratives with which to think through a range of human experiences: from disappointment, and fear to envy and grief.
Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/75205
2017-03-29T19:19:51Z
2017-03-29T19:19:51Z
Once upon a time: a brief history of children’s literature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162857/original/image-20170328-21261-1t2c91q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children's books were historically moralising and instructive. What's changed?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hillarie/2322845318/">Hillarie/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>April 2 is International Children’s Book Day and the anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous contributors to this genre, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hans-Christian-Andersen-Danish-author">Hans Christian Andersen</a>. But when Andersen wrote his works, the genre of children’s literature was not an established field as we recognise today.</p>
<p>Adults have been writing for children (a broad definition of what we might call children’s literature) in many forms for centuries. Little of it looks much fun to us now. Works aimed at children were primarily concerned with their moral and spiritual progress. Medieval children were taught to read on parchment-covered wooden tablets containing the alphabet and a basic prayer, usually the Pater Noster. Later versions are known as “hornbooks”, because they were covered by a protective sheet of transparent horn.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162813/original/image-20170328-21243-yaytno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1630 horn book.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Folger Digital Image 3304.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Spiritually-improving books aimed specifically at children were published in the 17th century. The Puritan minister John Cotton wrote a catechism for children, titled <a href="http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/18/">Milk for Babes</a> in 1646 (republished in New England as Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in 1656). It contained 64 questions and answers relating to religious doctrine, beliefs, morals and manners. James Janeway (also a Puritan minister) collected stories of the virtuous lives and deaths of pious children in <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-token-for-children">A Token for Children</a> (1671), and told parents, nurses and teachers to let their charges read the work “<a href="https://archive.org/details/tokenforchi00janeiala">over a hundred times</a>.”</p>
<p>These stories of children on their deathbeds may not hold much appeal for modern readers, but they were important tales about how to achieve salvation and put children in the leading role. Medieval legends about young Christian martyrs, like St Catherine and St Pelagius, did the same.</p>
<p>Other works were about manners and laid out how children should behave. Desiderius Erasmus famously produced a book of etiquette in Latin, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/27720574?q&versionId=46401953">On Civility in Children</a> (1530), which gave much useful advice, including “don’t wipe your nose on your sleeve” and “To fidget around in your seat, and to settle first on one buttock and then the next, gives the impression that you are repeatedly farting, or trying to fart. So make sure your body remains upright and evenly balanced.” This advice shows how physical comportment was seen to reflect moral virtue.</p>
<p>Erasmus’s work was translated into English (by Robert Whittington in 1532) as A lytyll booke of good manners for children, where it joined a body of conduct literature aimed at wealthy adolescents.</p>
<p>In a society where reading aloud was common practice, children were also likely to have been among the audiences who listened to romances and secular poetry. Some medieval manuscripts, such as <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/shuffelton-codex-ashmole-61-introduction">Bodleian Library Ashmole 61</a>, included courtesy poems explicitly directed at “children yong”, alongside popular Middle English romances, saints’ lives and legends, and short moral and comic tales.</p>
<h2>Do children have a history?</h2>
<p>A lot of scholarly ink has been spilled in the debate over whether children in the past were understood to have distinct needs. Medievalist Philippe Ariès suggested in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/635657.Centuries_of_Childhood">Centuries of Childhood</a> that children were regarded as miniature adults because they were dressed to look like little adults and because their routines and learning were geared towards training them for their future roles.</p>
<p>But there is plenty of evidence that children’s social and emotional (as well as spiritual) development were the subject of adult attention in times past. The regulations of late medieval and early modern schools, for example, certainly indicate that children were understood to need time for play and imagination.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163071/original/image-20170329-1674-1whf4f2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children’s Games, 1560.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=rlmrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA175&dq=annemarieke+willemsen+that+the+boys+come+to+school&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEqo_n8vrSAhVBr48KHUieC-IQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=annemarieke%20willemsen%20that%20the%20boys%20come%20to%20school&f=false">Archaeologists working on the sites of schools in The Netherlands</a> have uncovered evidence of children’s games that they played without input from adults and without trying to emulate adult behaviour. Some writers on education suggested that learning needed to appeal to children. This “progressive” view of children’s development is often attributed to John Locke but it has a longer history if we look at theories about education from the 16th century and earlier.</p>
<p>Some of the most imaginative genres that we now associate with children did not start off that way. In Paris in the 1690s, the salon of Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulnoy, brought together intellectuals and members of the nobility. </p>
<p>There, d’Aulnoy told “<a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/daulnoy.html">fairy tales</a>”, which were satires about the royal court of France with a fair bit of commentary on the way society worked (or didn’t) for women at the time. These short stories blended folklore, current events, popular plays, contemporary novels and time-honoured tales of romance.</p>
<p>These were a way to present subversive ideas, but the claim that they were fiction protected their authors. A series of 19th-century novels that we now associate with children were also pointed commentaries about contemporary political and intellectual issues. One of the better known examples is Reverend Charles Kingsley’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42573.The_Water_Babies">The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby</a> (1863), a satire against child labour and a critique of contemporary science.</p>
<h2>The moral of the story</h2>
<p>By the 18th century, children’s literature had become a commercially-viable aspect of London printing. The market was fuelled especially by London publisher John Newbery, the “father” of children’s literature. As literacy rates improved, there was continued demand for instructional works. It also became easier to print pictures that would attract young readers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162817/original/image-20170328-21267-2nvwib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">18th century Battledore printed by Newbery which adds pictures and a verse on the rewards of industry to the elements of the hornbook.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More and more texts for children were printed in the 19th century, and moralistic elements remained a strong focus. Katy’s development in patience and neatness in the “School of Pain” is key, for example, in Susan Coolidge’s enormously popular <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/730501.What_Katy_Did">What Katy Did</a> (1872), and feisty, outspoken Judy (spoiler alert!) is killed off in Ethel Turner’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/662786.Seven_Little_Australians">Seven Little Australians</a> (1894). Some authors managed to bridge the comic with important life lessons. Heinrich Hoffman’s memorable 1845 classic <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12116?msg=welcome_stranger">Struwwelpeter</a> reads now like a kids’ version of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw">dumb ways to die</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162816/original/image-20170328-21726-1dkf7vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Struwwelpeter (‘Shock-headed Peter’) in a 1917 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the turn of the 20th century, we see the emergence of a “kids’ first” literature, where children take on serious matters with (or often without) the help of adults and often within a fantasy context. The works of Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Edith Nesbit, JM Barrie, Frank L Baum, Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Roald Dahl and JK Rowling operate in this vein.</p>
<p>Children’s books still contain moral lessons – they continue to acculturate the next generation to society’s beliefs and values. That’s not to say that we want our children to be wizards, but we do want them to be brave, to stand up for each other and to develop a particular set of values. </p>
<p>We tend to see children’s literature as providing imaginative spaces for children, but are often short-sighted about the long and didactic history of the genre. And as historians, we continue to seek out more about the autonomy and agency of pre-modern children in order to understand how they might also have found spaces in which to exercise their imagination beyond books that taught them how to pray.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Broomhall receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne McEwan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Tarbin receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Children’s literature may be a modern genre, but there is a long history of writing for children with some surprisingly unchanging elements.
Susan Broomhall, Director, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Western Australia
Joanne McEwan, Researcher, The University of Western Australia
Stephanie Tarbin, Lecturer in medieval and early modern history, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73137
2017-03-23T03:04:05Z
2017-03-23T03:04:05Z
How 19th century fairy tales expressed anxieties about ecological devastation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161086/original/image-20170316-20776-17ofa73.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the Fir Tree, children stamp on a discarded – but feeling – Christmas tree. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Fir Tree, illustrated by George Dalziel and Edward Dalziel, from Out of the Heart: Spoken to the Little Ones, 1867</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen was one of the most popular European fairy tale authors in 19th century England. While today Andersen is known for his agonised mermaids, disabled tin soldiers and disenfranchised match sellers, his Victorian readers celebrated tales that raised environmental concerns during an age of rapid industrialisation. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/humans-have-caused-climate-change-for-180-years">a recent international research project</a>, human activity has been the leading cause of global warming since the early stages of the Industrial Revolution – decades before scientists had previously estimated. Global warming is not a 20th-century phenomenon; rather, humans have been impacting the environment for over 180 years.</p>
<p>From 1760 to 1914 in England, vast numbers of people moved from the country to the city for financial security. London’s population swelled, prompting a century-long struggle with filth. An outdated sewage system released all human waste into the capital’s water supply, smoke poured from both factory and domestic chimneys and streets were caked with coal, mud, vegetable matter and animal waste.</p>
<p>As urban life became increasingly distanced from nature, Andersen’s fairy tales thrived. While Victorian fantasy literature often romanticised nature as an escape from the encroaching industrial landscape, Andersen showed human characters as the source of environmental degradation.</p>
<p>For example, Andersen’s stories The Fir Tree, The Daisy and The Flax, feature plants that are tortured and abused by human characters. In these stories, talking plants suffer the dangers of industry. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161089/original/image-20170316-20784-13xcmfv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration for The Daisy, by George Dalziel and Edward Dalziel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Out of the Heart: Spoken to the Little Ones (1867)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the pain they experience, these plants are selfless providers willing to compromise their personal happiness for human interest. These sympathetic depictions of nature, during a century of environmental devastation, encouraged children to reflect on their impact on the landscape.</p>
<p>Other tales, such as The Great Sea Serpent, detail the emerging conflict between animals and technology. The story describes fish reacting to the installation of the transatlantic telegraph cable, which ran the length of the Atlantic ocean between Europe and America. </p>
<p>With the chaos of the installation, schools of fish become separated, sea-anemones “were so agitated that they threw up their stomachs” and the cod and flounders who once “lived peacefully” began to eat their neighbours. </p>
<p>When the fish rally together to destroy the cable, a shark is impaled by a sword-fish and “great fishes and small, sea-anemones and snails rushed at one another, ate each other, mashed and squeezed in” while “the cable lay quietly and attended to its affairs”. The telegraph cable is not a positive technological breakthrough, but a threat to the environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159690/original/image-20170307-20747-3fvxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration from A Drop of Water.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A microscopic (yet equally voracious) ecosystem and its parallels with increasingly hostile cities is the subject of Andersen’s Drop of Water. A sorcerer named Creep-and-Crawl examines an extract of ditch water using a microscopic lens. He notices organisms that “hopped and jumped about, pulled one another and pecked one another”. Seeing the organism’s violent, unruly conduct, his colleague assumes that the creatures must be living in a capital city.</p>
<p>The Victorian public was equally horrified by the organisms that were hidden in its drinking water. The fear of contaminated water was well founded: an antiquated sewage system directed London’s cesspools to the Thames, which was the capital’s water reserve. Chemicals from factories were also released into the river, spreading waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery.</p>
<p>Andersen’s contemporaries also exaggerated microscopic images of organisms (otherwise known as “monster soup”) in contemporary journals. In these illustrations, samples of water from the Thames were filled with a host of aggressive, potentially deadly beasts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159687/original/image-20170307-20759-ahgr5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anonymous engraving in Punch Magazine, The Wonders of a London Water Drop.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, an anonymous illustration published in Punch magazine in 1850 shows hybrid and humanoid creatures wearing tuxedos in a petri dish. Amidst the chaos, small worm-like creatures spell out the word “pestilence”.</p>
<p>William Heath’s coloured engraving from 1828 features winged creatures, hybrid animals and crustaceans with protruding fangs; the woman viewing the contaminated water is so disgusted that she drops her cup and saucer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159689/original/image-20170307-20753-12e2s8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monster Soup Commonly Known as Thames Water (1828), William Heath.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By exploring the repercussions of an industrialised landscape, Andersen’s fairy tales provided commentary on a very real, looming threat to the English landscape and its population.</p>
<p>Today, with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/31/global-warning-rise-cli-fi">steady rise</a> of dystopian literature, ecofiction and climate change fiction (otherwise known as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/cli-fi-novels-humanise-the-science-of-climate-change-and-leading-authors-are-getting-in-on-the-act-51270">cli fi</a>”), we see similar artistic responses to environmental change which steer readers away from complacency. As authors seek to express the gravity and severity of ecological crises, their literature holds the potential to inspire radical change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Tedeschi is a sessional tutor at Deakin University and the University of Melbourne.</span></em></p>
The Industrial Revolution choked English cities in smog, filled rivers with waste and spread disease in crowded cities. At the same time, fairy tales about humans destroying nature proliferated.
Victoria Tedeschi, PhD candidate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46588
2015-08-26T10:54:19Z
2015-08-26T10:54:19Z
It should be a capitalist flop, but Banksy’s Dismaland is pure magic
<p>It’s not easy being a superstar anti-establishment art celebrity. Back in the late 1990s I was one of a group of art students who, for a time, became <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jun/08/martinwainwright">mildly famous as art pranksters</a>. Within the group we could never be sure – and this despite our most earnest efforts – that our work really was the stuff of revolution. But we were in the papers. We were on the Turner Prize programme. We were even offered a book deal. Nonetheless it’s hard to maintain revolutionary kudos once you’ve been interviewed by <a href="http://brillianttv.co.uk/timmymallett/index.php">Timmy Mallett</a>. </p>
<p>And so I feel for Banksy. In Bristol, his <a href="http://visitbristol.co.uk/things-to-do/street-art">street-pieces</a> are still powerful landmarks even if we know, and he knows, what a dichotomy he represents, caught somewhere between art and artifice; an anarchist in capitalist giftwrap. </p>
<p>This being so, I was not expecting much from his latest hyped-up creation, <a href="http://www.dismaland.co.uk/">Dismaland</a>. I assumed it would be trying too hard to recapture that lost edginess; that old sold-out soul. An art Dumbo, painting its face like a clown; an elephantine joke that isn’t funny.</p>
<p>And yet. And yet.</p>
<p>Weston-super-Mare has become a byword for every cliche ever mouthed about the British seaside. Fish-paste sandwiches. Miserable donkeys. Rain. More rain. Somewhere along the seafront, a life-size dummy of the Queen stares out from a hotel window. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92964/original/image-20150825-15920-1s54o7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faded glory: Weston-super-Mare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66176388@N00/1477524387/">Mark Robinson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The remains of a former landscape are still visible, with golden sand and spectacular sunsets that bleed all over the west-facing coast. But the town itself is challenged. It’s one of the many seaside towns run down by low employment and little investment. </p>
<p>And while towns such as <a href="http://www.esquire.co.uk/food-drink/travel/8101/how-margate-became-the-new-hipsters-paradise/">Margate</a> may have been substantially regenerated by an influx of middle-class urban artists, let’s be clear: nothing would doom Dismaland faster than to see it beswamped by hordes of post-ironic urbanites. </p>
<p>I can only hope that doesn’t happen, because my experience of Dismaland was pure magic.</p>
<p>It came from the children. Among rubble, crumbling brickwork and exposed cabling, children played. They were joyous on the merry-go-round, despite the decorative horse strung up by a cleaver-wielding butcher. With utmost seriousness, children steered miniature boats crammed with miniature migrants towards miniature cliffs of Dover, avoiding the miniature corpses. Somewhere a Shetland pony hung suspended in formaldehyde, a golden narwhal tusk glued to its forehead. The children stared. “Look,” said a mother, almost concealing her anxiety. “A unicorn.”</p>
<p>The pinnacle of it all was the fairy tale palace, modelled dismally on Disney’s core branding. In the absolute gloom, children’s voices were shrill. “I don’t like it.” “I’m scared.” “Look! The princess is really dead. Mum. Have you seen the animals? Look. She is really dead.” And so on.</p>
<h2>Fairytale of Weston-super-Mare</h2>
<p>Disney, of course, has colonised the fairy tale as a medium for extreme capitalism. Banksy, in turn, has re-appropriated it as a vehicle for “<a href="http://www.buro247.com.au/culture-lifestyle/arts/banksy-explains-dismaland-the-eerie-theme-park-for.html">entry-level anarchy</a>”. But fairy tales themselves are intricately bound up with class relations and social power, frequently hinging on rags-to-riches and marrying “up” as the very model of success. </p>
<p>In 1697, <a href="https://librivox.org/author/608?primary_key=608&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results">Charles Perrault</a> wrote the first collection of fairy tales for children. In 17th-century France, fairy tales had become a highly stylised literary form created for aristocratic adults; highly wrought and finely tuned for the monied classes. But Perrault’s tales were written under the guise of an old peasant woman: Mother Goose. Aping the style of the oral folk tale, his collection included what would come to be Disney staples such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. </p>
<p>While folk tales were often morally ambiguous or downright ambivalent, stylised fairy tales were frequently intended to mould social behaviour according to the mores of the rich. Perrault himself was clear about his pedagogical intentions. Such stories were useful since they could be made to contain hidden instructions for children. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that Disney’s tales have played such a key role in its hyper-capitalist dominion. </p>
<p>But even despite landfills of princess merchandise, Disney too has dabbled in the vaguely horrifying. The death of Bambi’s mother scarred generations of children, as did the Technicolor perversities of Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island. Dumbo’s Pink Elephants are in a class of their own. Watching the children play at Dismaland I was reminded of all these things; and reminded too that there is a value, surely, in allowing children to come face-to-face with their own fears and realities; their unexpressed anxieties, dreams and nightmares; danger and loss.</p>
<p>There is no moral to this particular story. Except to say that, perhaps, Dismaland’s re-imagining of the Disney fairy tale is truer to its folk roots than was intended. While a fairy tale is pinned down and fixed, like a glue-tusked pony in formaldehyde, the folk tale is a living organism that changes with every telling; becoming something different depending on the who, the where and the how. Four weeks from now, perhaps Dismaland itself will be a pickled pony. But on Saturday, it was magic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Banksy has pulled off a modern retelling of ancient fairy tales.
Victoria Anderson, Visiting Researcher in Cultural Studies, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/36069
2015-01-09T14:56:29Z
2015-01-09T14:56:29Z
Before you go Into the Woods, remember that fairy tales have always been dark places
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68563/original/image-20150109-23798-1gveseu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Watch out...</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">©2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fairy tales have happy endings. They may be dark and scary but the prince always finds Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood susses out the big bad wolf. Right? All too often many assume that fairy stories are, have always been and should be all about the happily ever after. </p>
<p>The release of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2180411/">Into the Woods</a> has set this myth on its bewitching way once again. The film is a Disney adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical intertwining of several well-known fairy tales, principally Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, and features more death than the typical tale, and other “adult themes” like adultery. Predictably, its release has set the worriers worrying that Disney’s version will have sugar-spun the original beyond all recognition.</p>
<p>And the film has had a rather mixed reception from the reviewers. Some see it as a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/08/into-the-woods-review-fairytale-musical-tastefully-retooled">“mulched”, “mythic mash-up” that “loses clarity”</a>, while others have described it as “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11298668/Into-the-Woods-review-Meryl-Streep-Emily-Blunt-Anna-Kendrick.html">pure pleasure</a>”. Predictably, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gff28">Radio 4’s Today programme raised the concern</a> that because Into the Woods has been created for families (and by Disney) it will be saccharine with the “adult themes” lost. And yet adult themes of loss of innocence, poverty, greed, desire, love and despair have always been integral to the fairy story.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68575/original/image-20150109-23812-gxfhbc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unhappy with your prince, Cinderella?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dark beginnings</h2>
<p>Fairy tales started as a spoken tradition and were written up by the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault for families – not exclusively for children. What’s more, they contained predatory wolves who had to be killed, children who were abandoned and wicked, and wayward witches. Jack Zipes demonstrates in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=areW3sCQf1YC">his study of Red Riding Hood</a> that often in early versions the endings of the story weren’t so very happy and included our red-capped heroine sometimes defeating the wolf single handed, and in others being eaten all up. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F-tZAAAAMAAJ">As Angela Carter showed us</a>, these dark cautionary tales for young women were passed down by mothers and grandmothers for good reason. The stories functioned as warnings, life lessons about growing up as a woman.</p>
<p>Interestingly, it’s gender stereotypes that offend most cultural theorists <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hKlG6vJYEEUC">such as Henry Giroux</a>, who accuse the animated versions of fairy stories in particular of being full of outdated ideology. Certainly, early Disney didn’t alter the blueprint of the early fairy tales – rags to riches, a happy ending, defeating the baddies – but it is far from cautious in confronting so-called adult themes such as death, jealousy and fear of responsibility.</p>
<p>Scarily, the versions I have found most conservative in terms of ideology are actually educational animations of fairy stories made for schools. They rather alarmingly reduce girls to sappy, hapless victims who should never be sent into the woods at all. The much loved <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/">Frozen</a> meanwhile has sister rescuing sister, a much more innovative reworking of fairy tale traditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Byk9Is3TjY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A patchwork quilt of reinvention</h2>
<p>Disney is not alone in its fascination with fairy stories. As any fan of the children’s picture book will tell you, there are numerous retellings which hold up a magic mirror to our shared experiences, turning gender stereotypes along with many other conventions on their heads.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MX1JAQAAIAAJ">Into the Forest</a> by Anthony Browne is an entrancing picture book which captures the eerie qualities of the forest and invites us to spot familiar fairytale characters lurking in the background. In Janet and Alan Ahlberg’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hX6zJAyQMzgC">Each Peach Pear Plum</a> the rhyming story also features fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters up to their usual and not-so-usual tricks. Similarly, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OL2dQAAACAAJ">The Jolly Postman</a> shares hilarious everyday backstories for Goldilocks and Cinders which are revealed in the letters, mail order catalogues and invitations the characters send each other. </p>
<p>And beyond compare perhaps in this genre, the Shrek films have fun with all the rules and conventions of fairy stories, including those of Disney. The brilliance of ogre Fiona outweighs the overbearing godmother, who is to blame for most of the misdemeanours.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68574/original/image-20150109-23807-1x92sua.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Little Red.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Far from being safe and essentially conservative, the continued renewal of the fairy story through each retelling has pushed all the boundaries of taste and traversed the shades of light and dark in surprisingly exhilarating ways. In Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, Red Riding Hood whips a pistol from her knickers. More recently in Hoodwinked, a rather under-rated film, Red is a feisty sleuth whose competence and bravery are at the heart of the film and it is granny (plot spoiler) who is badly behaved.</p>
<p>So perhaps in Into the Woods we should anticipate Emily Blunt’s apparently rather good singing, Meryl Streep’s wicked witch and a prince who decamps camp (if the reviews prove good) with a more open mind.</p>
<p>Fairy tales are a uniquely adaptable and adapted form which continue to be renewed and transformed for new family audiences. For children today, the woods are an important imaginative realm, somewhere where the baddies can be good and goodies can be bad. We have to continue to invite our children into the fictional forests, to learn about the dangerous and wonderful world through the lens of fantasy.</p>
<p>So before we get to go into the woods we should take care not to get too comfortable in the cosiness of the cottage fireside – and remember the dark truth in the history of the fairy tale and the continued possibility of invention, innovation, subversion and disruption.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Parry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fairy tales have happy endings. They may be dark and scary but the prince always finds Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood susses out the big bad wolf. Right? All too often many assume that fairy stories…
Becky Parry, Lecturer in Education and Childhood Studies, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/34537
2014-11-24T19:36:52Z
2014-11-24T19:36:52Z
Reader beware: the nasty new edition of the Brothers Grimm
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65346/original/image-20141124-19615-1v1y0wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jacob and Wilhelm were Grimm, no question. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fairy tales have a tumultuous and fragile history. They originated as tales told by “folk”. They were passed down over generations to while away long winter nights, to provide entertainment at special occasions and for simple enjoyment.</p>
<p>Inevitably, as more people became literate and scholars began to record fairy tales, they were published. And then, with a wave of a magic wand, they entered the canon of European literature.</p>
<p>Scholar and editor <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Ed-lena/Mythcon24%20Jack%20Zipes%20page.html">Jack Zipes</a> has long regarded this process of making literature from non-literary traditions as a process of sanitisation. The problem, as Zipes has explained, is that once fairy tales were recorded by scholars such as the brothers <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/grimm.html">Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm</a>, they became bourgeois, religious and moral with some of the naughtiest parts censored.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65175/original/image-20141121-10912-smheo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first edition of the Brothers Grimm fairytales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zipes has long championed the restoration of fairy tales to their original form. This is a daunting task but it’s not entirely impossible. Traces of the violence, sex and taboo that characterised many tales are still in evidence in early editions of the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales (<em>Kinder- und Hausmärchen</em>).</p>
<p>The very first edition, published in German in 1812, is a strange beast in the literary history of fairy tales. </p>
<p>The Grimms originally produced a scholarly work to preserve the folk tales of the German people with a decidedly philological bent. Despite its title, the book was not intended for children to access independently. Unsurprisingly, neither it, nor the second volume released in 1815, was a bestseller. </p>
<p>But, as the brothers kept revising, re-editing and toning down the tales in subsequent editions, their fairy tales made them literary superstars – the J. K. Rowlings of the Romantic age – culminating in the famous, decidedly child-friendly 7th edition in 1857.</p>
<p>For more than 100 years, stories such as Cinderella and Snow White have delighted and enthralled children and adults alike. Censored in various translations based on the 1857 edition, retold in quaint picture books and made famous by Disney, these tales now bear little resemblance to the versions that appeared in the Grimms’ two-volume editions of 1812 and 1815.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65332/original/image-20141124-19627-1vdyk7n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cinderella.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hermann_Vogel-Cinderella-1.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zipes has now made major steps to revive the original tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm before they felt the pressure to sanitise and prettify their once gritty tales of wounded children, violent heroes and sensual heroines. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c10300.html">Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition</a>, Zipes has produced the inaugural English translation of the two original volumes in a gutsy, robust style – warts-and-all.</p>
<p>Children, parents and teachers BEWARE!</p>
<p>English readers will be treated to some juicy gossip, such as the scoop on the sexual escapades of Rapunzel and the Prince and the inside story on the real identity of Snow White’s mother. Additionally, there’s a series of tabloid tales, likely unfamiliar to most readers. Read the collection and you’ll discover why.</p>
<p>So, is Zipes’ translation suitable for children? For that matter, are fairy tales in any shape or form suitable for modern kids? Such questions have dominated debates on pedagogies and parenting for decades. </p>
<p>With the rise of second wave feminism in the 1970s, some women argued for the replacement of fairy tales with stories depicting emancipated heroines rather than victimised and passive ones. Likewise, educators and parents have flinched at the violence in some tales and have banished those dealing with incest, abandonment and starvation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65329/original/image-20141124-19621-11vr1us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Rackham Snow White.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Rackham_Snow_White.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But others are against the censorship of fairy tales. While the tales were originally meant for adults, children would have also heard them from time-to-time – either intentionally, by accident or through adult indifference. </p>
<p>In view of this reality, the pro-fairy tale contingent sometimes argues that what was acceptable for kids hundreds of years ago, should be acceptable today. </p>
<p>There is also the argument that children of the noughties are over-protected and thereby unprepared for the “real world” or the online world; a problem that could be rectified by exposing them to the unexpurgated Brothers Grimm. </p>
<p>It’s also argued that they also offer children hope as well as a championing the qualities of perseverance and bravery. As Zipes <a href="http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/2008/06/29/jack-zipes-fairy-tales/">argues</a>: “At their best, the storytelling of fairy tales constitute the most profound articulation of the human struggle to form and maintain a civilizing process.”</p>
<p>More extreme and controversial advocates of fairy tales include the now infamous <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63547/Bruno-Bettelheim">Bruno Bettelheim</a>. A therapist who treated children using unconventional and allegedly dangerous methods, Bettelheim was a proponent of the benefits of using fairy tales in his therapy sessions. </p>
<p>While his well-known, Freudian-inspired work, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/444388.The_Uses_of_Enchantment">The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales</a> (1976) is quirky, it does put forward some interesting ideas on the use of such narratives in workshopping fears in safe, symbolic ways as well as opening up dialogues on mechanisms to overcome adult oppression and abuse. </p>
<p>But Bettelheim, it seems, did more harm than good and <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/feb/27/the-strange-case-of-dr-b/">his legacy is tainted by allegations of abuse</a>. But surely the fault should not be placed at the feet of poor old Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.</p>
<p>I suggest a cautious middle-road. Then, perhaps some of the more hair-raising tales could be shared with kids – but under the tutelage of sensible adults.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fairy tales have a tumultuous and fragile history. They originated as tales told by “folk”. They were passed down over generations to while away long winter nights, to provide entertainment at special…
Marguerite Johnson, Associate Professor in Ancient History and Classical Languages, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/30725
2014-08-20T05:41:23Z
2014-08-20T05:41:23Z
Unhappily ever after: modern fairy tales of motherhood by Danielle Wood
<p>We can blame the Brothers Grimm for stepmothers getting a bad rap. Mothers were frequently cruel to their offspring in fairytales until the Grimms decided in the process of collecting oral tales and <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=LWAVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">transforming them</a> for child readers that biological mothers could no longer be demonised. Wicked inclinations and a lack of feminine nurturing became the preserve of stepmothers, while “real” mothers were often saintly in death. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56877/original/bg8bnk7v-1408511235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mothers Grimm cover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allen & Unwin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her new collection of short stories, <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741756746">Mothers Grimm</a>, Danielle Wood loosely rewrites four of the Grimms’ tales to confront modern myths and expectations about motherhood. There are no models of maternal perfection in her tales, which riff on Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Briar Rose and The Goose Girl.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Bloody_Chamber_and_Other_Stories.html?id=blAeSB_29vMC&redir_esc=y">The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories</a> (1979), Angela Carter famously restored power and cunning to various fairy tale heroines. Yet the outcomes of the stories that comprise Mothers Grimm are much more ambiguous. They reflect a world in which the bold hopes of second-wave feminism have dissolved into postfeminist uncertainty – there are no sword-wielding grandmothers here.</p>
<p>Familiar settings of dark woods and grand palaces are replaced by yoga classes, childcare centres, and the family home. The first tale, “Lettuce” (the name Rapunzel actually refers to a kind of lettuce) begins with reference to “a species of Arnott’s biscuit called the Orange Slice”. </p>
<p>Wood found that it was easy to relocate some of the key fairy tale tropes into the contemporary and the quotidian. “Archetypes are endlessly renewable,” she says. “The wonderful thing about them is that you can so easily feed them Orange Slices and make them go to pregnancy yoga classes.”</p>
<p>Fairy tales are currently enjoying a revival in major films such as Malificent, Frozen, and Mirror, Mirror and in TV series including Once Upon a Time and Grimm. Wood sees their potential to be repurposed as limitless: “I don’t think we’ll ever exhaust the capacity of fairy tales to be reinvented and re-told. Fairy tales are a bit like a trick mirror: you look into them and they can be made to reflect all kinds of new versions of ourselves.”</p>
<p>In “Cottage”, the heartless abandonment of children in the forest becomes a modern-day dilemma about working mothers and the anxieties surrounding leaving children in the care of others. While “Lettuce” gradually exposes that the beautiful, poised mother-to-be who appears perfect has much to hide. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56878/original/ztm5wsf2-1408511350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author Danielle Wood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allen & Unwin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Wood explains, the “good mother” myth encourages some women to strive to project the illusion of faultlessness, while others feel painfully aware of their shortcomings. “Even if you put the Vicks Mum and the Dettol Mum to one side,” she says, “there are an awful lot of real life women who manage to project the myth and maybe some of them would tell you that they’re actually living it. But most of us mere mortals are awake at 2am worrying about whether or not we’re doing a good enough job.” </p>
<p>“Sleep” tells of the kind of mother who will always be presumed to be doing a bad job: the teen mum. After first enduring the disappointment of her family, Liv struggles with the otherworldly states induced by sleepless nights, with a tragic outcome. </p>
<p>“Nag” is perhaps the most confronting of all the tales. Motherhood on an isolated, dusty farm — on which life can quickly be extinguished — prompts a troubling refrain from a horse: “<em>If your mother could see you now, her heart would break in two</em>.”</p>
<p>The most trying aspects of mothering occur in private and have tended to remain closely kept secrets. Mothers Grimm offers the reader a glimpse of the hidden conflicts of domestic life and the ways in which strong women work to hold things together. </p>
<p>“[M]aybe it will provoke a bit of thinking about the way women pass judgements on each other,” Wood suggests of her collection, “and the way an intensely consumerist, materialist society like ours can create the kind of painful, isolating situations that some of my characters face.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56881/original/mvc557z2-1408512235.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An old woman shows Sleeping Beauty a spindle. Illustration by Alexander Zick.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet Wood consistently pierces the most horrific aspects of these stories of motherhood stripped bare with humour. For instance, “Sleep” begins with the epigraph: “<em>You reach womanhood and although there may not be a spindle, there will still be blood, a curse, and some little prick</em>.”</p>
<p>Wood is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Tasmania. She has also delved into fairy tale studies at international conferences, and has been involved in events run by the newly established <a href="http://ausfairytalesociety.com.au/">Australian Fairy Tale Society</a> and the <a href="http://fairytalesalon.wordpress.com/">Monash Fairy Tale Salon</a>. </p>
<p>Mothers Grimm is part of the growth of both scholarly and literary engagements with the fairy tale tradition in Australia. Early attempts to situate fairy tales in Australia awkwardly transplanted gossamer fairies into the bush, but we’re at last finding our own enchanted, if slightly disturbing, voice. </p>
<p><em>Mothers Grimm will be published by Allen & Unwin on 27 August 2014.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
We can blame the Brothers Grimm for stepmothers getting a bad rap. Mothers were frequently cruel to their offspring in fairytales until the Grimms decided in the process of collecting oral tales and transforming…
Michelle Smith, Research Fellow, Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.